What You Will
by miss-apple-dbz
Summary: Videl is planted in an all boys' school as a spy to investigate a mysterious and supernatural case. Yet a happy-go-lucky classmate asserts himself in her path, and he may just be both the clue she needs and the distraction she's trying to avoid. Gh/Vi. AU. Re-post.
1. Of Wigs and Shoe Platforms

AN: After four years, I'm picking this story up and dusting it off. I really like the concept of Videl disguising herself into a boy, and sparking a relationship with Gohan, and generally getting into all sorts of trouble. It's inherently amusing to me. So I'm trying, for the upteenth time, to rewrite this story into a more intelligible form, hopefully one which has a lot less plot holes than the first version.

I am hoping that those of you who have read the previous version and liked it, would also find the changes here agreeable; and for those who haven't read my story before, I hope you enjoy this one.

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**Chapter 1: Of Wigs and Shoe Platforms**

Her name was Del Natas. 'Late-bloomer Del,' they joked. That's why 'his' voice was still high. Officer Miso gave her three-inch platforms to insert into her shoes. He even gave her two pairs. One for the sneakers and the other for the dress shoes, he said, giving her a wink. Yet as she stared at her reflection in the mirror, trying to familiarize herself with her male alter-ego, she knew that even the freshmen boys of West City Academy would tower over her.

Videl left the mirror, and closed the blinds on her window. She was on the seventh storey of the dormitory, a new-century building surrounded only by a lovely ball park and some trees, but she was not taking any chances. After all, even West City's proud reputation of being highly secure with bleeding edge technology did not prevent them from losing half a million zennis from their funds account.

Half a million zennis that disappeared, and miraculously appeared three days later.

That was what they said. It was a strange occurrence that even the hush-hush tactic WCA officials usually employed during tipsy times did not prevent them from seeking out some help. Oh, WCA was a very prestigious and clean-cut school alright, but it was not spotless, seeing that over half of the student body had quite prestigious family names attached to them as well. And when there was money, there was trouble.

Videl, out of all people, knew that.

She went to her still packed luggage and pulled out a metal folder in which the documents for her mission were kept. There was a touch sensitive sensor at the bottom corner of the metal, where she could tap the password in Morse code before the folder's flaps could be pried apart.

It was outrageous, really, to think that neither West City Police Department nor Satan City Forces had any boys under their command that could pose as a spy in an all-boys' school. Of course they just _had_ to make the mission much more risky by planting a girl in it. There had been one other choice, but the cursed boy just _had_ to be scaling the heights of Mountain Road, and that the spy _had_ to be safely registered by the start of the new semester. Since West City Police Department had always been quite buddy-buddies with the Satan City Forces (right after the Cell Games too, how surprising), she was hired to investigate.

_568,000 Zennis were reported missing on March 24, Age 774 at 4:37am from West City Academy's Third Sector Funds Account. The theft was reported by one Mrs. Bay B. Blue, head assistant of the Security Department. On March 27, Age 774 at 12:12am, an update of the Third Sector Funds Account revealed that 568,000 Zennis have been returned._

That was what West City Academy reported to them. Videl could have pointed out that perhaps now that West City Academy had its lovely 568,000 zennis lump sum back, it was not worth looking into. That was out of the question apparently. If the accounts had been tampered with, clearly someone was able to breach WCA's infamous first class securities, and that alone required investigation. It could have been a computer glitch, but it was not in WCA's temperament to be so negligent. How ironic.

And so here she was, long hair buried under a short wig – everyone unanimously agreed that a wig would be better to detract suspicions from her real identity – sporting a blue-checkered Polo and dark brown khakis. Really, she could have passed for a freshman herself, but the officers insisted on making her a senior. They had more privileges, they said. Later curfews, roaming passes, etc. She had marveled at the shadowed portion of her throat, quite a masterpiece that a make-up artist painted on her to resemble a small Adam's apple. She underwent half an hour of training to be able to replicate the make-up. Art had never been her best subject.

She looked over the files in the folder, trying to ingrain more details into her mind. She doubted she would discover something big on the day before school began, but it was good to keep her subconscious working on things, just in case serendipity was around the corner.

_Prime suspects: Math teacher, Mr. Foo Bar. Reported to have been extremely upset and vindictive when he was not promoted as Head of the Math Department. New Finance Director, Ms. Yung Wan. May have not been trained properly on the software tools, and caused an upsetting accident... _

All the suspects currently were staff in the school; Officer Miso said he'd been informed that there was no way an outsider could have gotten access to those funds, unless they had helped from someone who was familiar with the institution. So if indeed it had been an outsider, it would still be a good idea to start with someone from within the school walls, and work their way up from there. Videl had to hide rolling her eyes at the implication of "no way," since it had also been rumoured that WCA was impenetrable. Look how that turned out.

Videl scanned the rest of the page, before putting it back into the folder and returning the folder into a secret compartment in her luggage.

She stretched her arms, and looked about the room. The officers had made sure that she was going to be in a single. She was glad to hear that they were still, in some ways, trying to mitigate the risks.

Quickly, she took out a small backpack, and stuffed in some of her regular shirts and shorts, as well as her nimble boots. She planned on scouting the neighbourhood to see if she could get a sense of what the atmosphere was like around here. Despite being quite free with what she did with her time – the police trusted her in how she would conduct her investigation, or so they said – she was restricted to one thing.

Never fight.

She was a local celebrity in Satan City, and the populace knew her abilities. The police were afraid that if she got into a fight, her 'technique' and 'prowess', or so they said again, would be recognized, and she would be revealed. Videl did not think her popularity spanned this far west, but she agreed to play on the safe side.

_Still_, she thought as she hoisted the bag over her shoulders and exited the room. _Just because I must not fight as Del Natas, it doesn't mean I can't fight as Videl._

-o-

On the day he came to West City to kick-start his high school career, Gohan fell in love.

Well, not really, because Dende knew he was only seventeen, and had no accurate notions of romantic love beyond the biological mechanisms written in the books he had read. And perhaps his parents' fleeting flirtations when his father was still alive, but that had been at least seven years ago, and who knew what really went on in Goku's head? Gohan certainly didn't, and he was probably the closest person to Goku.

So, perhaps he wasn't really in love. Maybe he was more _in admiration..._ a cold, bottomless, electric admiration. For a some girl he did not know and probably would never see again.

It all started when he blew out a fire in a gang-infested plaza.

He had ridden in by the outskirts of the city via Nimbus, hailed a taxi, which took him to the West City Academy campus. And right when he was about to go in, he noticed the sudden surge of people fill the street leading up to WCA's driveway. Only they were not running into it, they were running _away_ from the other direction. Curiosity piqued, Gohan rolled his luggage around to observe what was happening. Above the scattered buildings was a clear trail of smoke, dark and serpentine. More people poured into the road as Gohan heard the clear echo of a gunshot.

_What? Criminals at a crowded place like this?_ Gohan had thought in disbelief. _One would think that culprits would at least worry about being identified, but no._

He snatched his luggage by the handle, and decided to run towards the commotion. Good thing too, for if he hadn't, a lot of people would have been injured, and where else could he have had the opportunity to fall in lo – _in admiration_? Fall in admiration?

After passing two blocks, the alleys opened up to a small plaza, where two groups of people were threatening each other with firearms. The civilians who could escape the commotion ran in labyrinthine directions, causing more terror and confusion. There were broken glass littering the street, pieces of furniture strewn about the concrete, and public garbage bins upturned. The two groups, made up of what appeared to be gangs, were on the side of the plaza, opposite from each other. One group had its members marked by an orange and black bandana across their foreheads, while the other had no particular motif.

He ignored those who nudged and knocked him about. Instead, Gohan found the source of the fire by the gas station: a pile of debris someone managed to catch on fire, though he did not know how. But Gohan knew the city enough to understand that strange things always happened when there were so many people involved. Somehow, among the confusion, someone must have sparked a fire accidentally. But the gas station was large enough that if the fire reached one of the tanks, a huge explosion could result.

Anger stirred in him. What terrible disregard for public safety!

He left his luggage on the side and rushed with extraordinary speed to the gas station. The rush of air displaced by his swift movement was enough to extinguish the fire, even though it was not at all a small flame.

"Whoa Momma, that man appeared out of nowhere!" Gohan turned around to see a little girl pointing an accusing finger at him, her expression shocked. As a matter of fact, there were five to six people surrounding him, all forming a tableau of desperate escape, yet somehow were rooted in their tracks, staring at Gohan like he had three heads.

_Shoot_, Gohan thought. _I forgot I wasn't supposed to show my powers in public._

But it had been an emergency! Surely this wouldn't count.

Speaking of emergency, he ignored his spectators and turned to look back at the gangs. A powerful chi emerged from somewhere within, and Gohan's annoyance multiplied at the thought that the criminals were now up to even more trouble.

Strangely, however, the source of the chi didn't turn out to be one of the criminals after all. There at the center of the plaza, like a terrible eye of a storm, was a short youth taking on the two gangs by herself. After delivering a well-timed kick to the jaw of the leader on the right, she used her momentum to switch positions with another gang member just in time as someone from the opposing group released a bullet in her direction. The bullet lodged itself on the man's arm, eliciting a pained yell. The girl further infiltrated the gang's lee, her hands a precise blur that sent half of the men stumbling into unconsciousness with a blow to the back of their necks. Soon enough, only two men were left standing, and they too received the same fate as the girl whirled, planting a knife on the leg of a man almost three times her size, and driving her fist up the other man's face. Gohan saw a splutter of blood, then heard the heavy thud as the man fell on the concrete.

Without waiting for breathing space nor losing her position on the pavement, the girl spun halfway around, releasing a small pocket knife from her hands, with a velocity that sent it straight to the opening of the gun held by the leader of the opposing gang. Shocked, the man dropped his weapon. The girl then sprinted towards them, all of whom were now paralyzed on their spots, but whether due to terror or helplessness, Gohan didn't know. But it was too late now to get their acts together as the girl gave them a generous dose of what she had given the other team. Within a few seconds, back-up from the police came. By that time only a handful of the members from the remaining group were left, and they were too dazed to even do anything but surrender.

_Whoa,_ Gohan thought. He concentrated on her chi, amazed by what he had seen. He felt familiarity tugging in his mind, but he pushed it aside. He had never seen this girl before. If he had, he was sure he'd remember. Nobody could forget creative fighting inhibitions like those. Even for someone like him who had seen countless battles, mind-numbing martial arts skills and techniques, there was fluidity and wit in how the girl handled herself. It wasn't that she was _better_ than his friends; no, this girl was just... _different_. Raw and unjaded, in a way.

Now that the girl was stationary, he could observe her better. She had back-length black hair with bangs pushed flat on her forehead by a red beanie; loose shirt and typical sidewalk-mart jeans. Nothing really was remarkable about her physique.

He stayed for a while, rooted at his spot. He even forgot about the fire and the debris and the people who were minutes ago staring at _him_ as if he was the one who was so special. But like him, their attention had been stolen by the girl at the center of the plaza.

A cop ran towards her. "Videl, thank you so much for lending a hand! I'd hate to trouble you, because I know how terribly busy you must be, but I'd appreciate if you could answer a few questions." The cop look flustered, and even though he was six feet tall, the reverence in his posture made him look as if he was the shorter of the two.

_Videl, huh_?

He rolled the name on his tongue, as if trying to assess the taste of a new dish his mother invented. A smile lifted the corners of his lips, as he continued to watch her. He was not alone in his activity; others too stayed behind until Videl unpacked a small jet copter from a capsule, and then bid the crowd farewell as she took off to the sky.

Gohan blinked several times. _Whoa_.

In hindsight, his reaction had been strange. The rational part of his brain insisted so, as he collected the luggage he had left at the perimeter of the plaza, now knocked down and quite dirtied with shoe prints. He had seen fighters of amazing caliber before. Perhaps he just wasn't expecting one so good at her craft in the middle of the city. Having fought strange aliens in totally different environments, perhaps out of habit he had begun to think that there was nothing special in 'ordinary' places like these. Yes, that must be it. Simply put, she was just fascinating. Like rain on a sunny day.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the awe, he picked up his luggage, and began his trek back to West City Academy.

He knew his way around quite well, mostly from having spent multiple afternoons taking Goten and Trunks around for some downtown trips. Goten always loved it, because there was always so much to see. The amusement park on the eastern district, the mega-mall smack dab at the center of downtown, and the Candy Splash store just a few miles away from Capsule Corps were some of their favourite spots to hit.

Speaking of the scientist, Bulma had told him to visit some time this week after he has settled in his new environment. Gohan had no reason for declining; a visit to Bulma's was always exciting, since she would let him observe her new gadgets. Plus her company is not at all unpleasant. Besides, he sort of owed her a lot. Literally. Chichi took out loans from Bulma to send him to WCA. Even though he received some bursaries due to his high entrance exam scores, they did not cover the entirety of the expenses. Bulma, as a life long friend fervently refused to let him pay it back, but pride and practicality would not allow Chichi to have the business woman have her way.

"Besides," she had told Bulma. "Lots of other kids are paying for their own education. If part of this whole gig is to have Gohan experience what it is like to be normal, don't you think he ought to pay for his fees too?"

"Chichi, most teenagers don't go to a private all-boys' school, racking up 15,000 zennis a year! And those boys who go there are most likely not paying for it."

But Chichi would not have him anywhere else.

It did not really matter to Gohan where he would go. The prospect of entering high school with other people his age was enough of an adventure for such an introvert. Well to be honest, it was not like he had been totally alone in his educational pursuits while growing up. There was Icarus, and the frogs and bunnies. Gohan would be quite haughty indeed if he discounted them. Of course, there was the small fact that he couldn't really speak to them, but there were plenty of ways to communicate without using words! He remembered how much fun he especially had with his dragon friend, even though the purple horned animal could not utter a single word.

Gohan wondered briefly if any of his new classmates would be like Icarus. Oh, how fun it would be! Or would they be like Bulma? Intelligent and spontaneous and fashionable? Perhaps like Krillin, with a sharp sense of humour, or Yamucha with a wild penchant for adventure. Maybe he would even find one like Piccolo, a being of few words, but one who possessed the depth of an ocean.

Maybe he would even find someone he could talk to. _Really_ talk to. Not just small talk, but about things that really mattered. Like assessing the statistical significance of falling _in admiration_ at first sight.

Gohan sighed with that thought. No, that would never do. His mother wanted him to be a _normal_ teenager. There was no way he could speak about all the serious things pertaining to his life without endangering his family's goal of initiating him into the real world as an 'ordinary' boy.

Icarus and the other animals never minded what he really was. He would have to be careful about exposing his identity this time around. He never had to spend copious amounts of time with people who didn't know about his Saiyan heritage. Even though the dorm that Chichi had assigned for him was a single, he would still have to spend six hours each weekday at school, and live at the dormitory five days a week. Five, because Chichi encouraged him to go home during the weekends. She was quite adamant about it, in fact. Goten too was quite tantrum-prone when he found out that Gohan was not going to stay with them for a lengthy portion of the week. Gohan could simply not leave his little brother for five months straight!

By the time he reached the campus once again, Gohan's excitement, which had sobered a bit with the thought of his heritage, was again ignited by the sight of the school grounds. The main building boasted a white granite gate that enclosed its perimeters; a silver-gilded arch hovered over the entrance, with the block letters of 'West City Academy' proudly embossed on it. The building itself, fashioned after the archaic style, sported a rectangular base, as opposed to the more commonly used circle. It was angular, decorated with square windows. The entire first floor walls were paneled with glass, and he could see, even though they were still quite a ways away, people walking briskly inside. To the side was a tall tower with a parabolic top, the infamous observatory that granted WCA part of its prestige.

Well, this was it. In some ways, he felt just as anxious about all this as entering the Cell Games.

-o-

_Dragon... balls..._ Sharpner shivered. Kami, whoever named these things were unfashionably unimaginative. Very direct, since apparently once these so called 'balls' were gathered together, a dragon would pop out like a genie and grant your wish. Sharpner could barely contain his laughter as his finger continued to trail the line on the book he found.

_The origins of these magical orbs are not known. However, it has been reported that each ball emits electromagnetic waves which could be detected by a specially designed machinery._

Wow, this was crazy, as Sharpner had guessed right from the beginning. He was in a library, for Kami's sake! Nothing gets crazier than that. But it had been a rough week, and he was recruited as the unlucky student to help out Mr. Librarian – and no, that wasn't actually the old man's name, but Sharpner didn't really quite care – put back books in the library.

"Come on, put those muscles to good use!" the man had reprimanded him. "Those things could be more than eye candy, which you would know if only you read a few more anatomy textbooks."

And so here he was, head spinning with the musty scent of old paper and leather. He had ended up in the Culture and History section, and accidentally knocked down an ancient relic that Mr. Librarian had the gall to call a _book_,called 'Uncommon Sightings'. Honestly, this collection of bound rags of ink marks resembled a book only in the way it smelled: bad.

It wasn't like he was expecting a miracle, or a stroke of luck, because gee, he was _Sharpner Pencil_; it was his destiny to be the beholder of all the world's misfortune. His good clothes and good looks were only a consolation prize. Quite honestly, he did not know what he expected when he began browsing through the book, taking in the variety of strange sightings; all of the articles featured objects or creatures that were actually confirmed to be real. At least, the book didn't seem to indicate that any of them were merely urban legends or myths.

A ring interrupted his thoughts, and he pulled out his mobile phone. The face on the screen was one he was hoping he might not see for some time.

"What do you want, buttface?" he asked.

"Aww, don't be like that, Sharp!" his younger brother said. "Don't shoot the messenger!"

"Oh, you mean _you_ are not the one who wants something from me?"

"When have I ever wanted you for anything?" Scotch retorted.

Well, that was true. As much as it grated him to admit it, his younger siblings were much capable than he was.

Scotch continued, "I'm just calling you to say Boss wants you back."

"What?" Sharpner yelled. He received a shush from some of the people sitting by a table several feet away. He merely glared back at them. School wasn't going to start until tomorrow, and already these losers had nothing to do but read.

"I just left yesterday," Sharpner replied. "Why couldn't he have just told me everything he needed me to know yesterday? What, like a lazy lump of coal, dishonorable brute, slow rake aren't enough for a heart-to-heart chat? This is unbelievable! It's like..."

"Hey, hey, Sharpner, calm down!" Scotch said. "I don't need to know what you and Dad talked about, okay? I'm just here to relay the message. He wants you back. A phone convo won't do, but since I'm not one of his pets, he obviously didn't tell me anymore than that."

A high pitched voice emerged from somewhere behind Scotch. The view on the screen shook, and Sharpner heard an urgent, "Move over Tapey!", before the big eyes of his sister filled up the entire screen.

"Sharpie, when will you be back?" she whined.

Kami, shoot him right now! He _hated_ kids with a passion. And ending up with three siblings, all younger, was just the kind of misfortune that could befall on him. Kids... were creepy, and honestly that was the most eloquent way he could put it. Kids make you want to confess to crimes you hadn't committed yet.

"Okay, okay, I killed five people in the future, now stop staring at me like that, Lights!" he said to his sister.

The screen wobbled again, and he heard the disappointed complaints of his sister as Scotch came into view again.

"Dad said to come by. Immediately. Today if you can, if not tomorrow."

"What? It's a two hour ride by copter!" Sharpner exclaimed.

"Dad said what he said." Scotch shrugged. A second after, the screen turned blank, and Sharpner was left staring at his reflection.

Tomorrow then. He would not be a perpetual slave to that old man. It would not kill him to wait another twenty-four hours, and if it did, good riddance! He heaved a gregarious sigh, already feeling taxed and exhausted and he hadn't even gone home yet. As he put his phone away, his eyes landed on the old book again.

The dragon balls, huh?

Even unlucky louts like Sharpner could never stop hoping. What were the chances that he could actually find these dragon balls?

What were the chances he could be granted three wishes?

-o-

Videl was awake long before her watch beeped the morning alarm. Though she had been up for almost an hour, she still lay in bed, pondering over the upcoming day.

She had to admit, as a justice warrior back in Satan City, deception had never been her domain, let alone her forte. How was she supposed to get through an entire school year, dressed as a _boy_, hunting down clues to this mystery? Sure, she had a knack for sensing oddities, which was one of the qualities she possessed that got her hired for the job in the first place, but goodness, this was West City Academy; it was an all-boy's school. Wasn't it boys' duty to be so odd? If everything was odd, how could she know when things were truly out of place?

Videl threw back the blankets, and stumbled out of bed. The cherry on top of this unfortunate case was that Officer Miso left it up to her to come up with a back story for Del Natas. She already had the basics down.

Del Natas was from a quiet suburban. He did quiet things like read and study. His favourite hobby was to be quiet. Yes, Videl had full conviction that in order to be as efficient at this mission as possible, she should not attract attention to herself. And the best way to accomplish that was to stay out of everyone's way.

There was one perk though. It wasn't like she was without ambition; she would also capitalize as much as she could on the lessons taught here at WCA. There was a reason why this high school was so prestigious; there was a reason why millionaires sent their kids here. The education was top-notch. It had been one of Officer Miso's more enticing sales pitch. So she would go to class – which should provide ample time for her to observe her surroundings in detail – spend a reasonable amount of time doing homework, and then during leisure time, would sniff out whatever leads she obtained during her observation time.

She took a quick bath, and put on her undercover clothes. She had to dig deep into her luggage to find the make-up kit she brought along – almost had a panic attack when she couldn't find it and figured she'd go in a turtle neck – and began to replicate the tricks that the make-up artist at the headquarters taught her. There was not much they could do; she was still shrimpy and effeminate, but she'll squeeze by.

After checking that she had the notebooks and writing utensils she needed for the day, she pocketed her term schedule, and headed to the school grounds.

Exiting her room, and heading towards the elevator, she met a tall young man with black, spiky hair, facing the elevator doors. When he saw her coming towards him, he gave her a tentative wave and a shy "Hello!"

She waved back, quite surprised to meet the other student on the seventh floor right on the first day. There were only two rooms on the seventh floor, after all! The kids were roomed on the floor inversely proportional to the amount they paid for the dormitory. Those who wanted cheap flats, or more social opportunities, were housed on the first several floors. There were about fifteen rooms down there, each with the space sufficient for three and four students. As the floor numbers increased, so was the pay.

Videl remembered herself and smiled back. "Hey there," she said at first, and then _remembered_. She cleared her throat, forcing her voice to go down several mels in pitch. "I mean, _hey_, how are you doing?"

The boy chuckled good-naturedly. "Alright, I guess. A little nervous."

_Oh you have no idea_, Videl thought.

"It's my first day of school, after all!" the boy added cheerfully.

Videl nodded. "Yup, first day for all of us."

"No, I mean, it's my _very first_ day!" he exclaimed again. His stance seemed a little shy when she first glanced at him, but he seemed quite eager to talk. She heard about effects like those; nervousness could sometimes prompt people to seek out others for support. "This is the first time I'm going to school."

Oh! Realization dawned on Videl. Okay, perhaps this guy had something to be nervous about then. This was an interesting turn in the conversation.

The elevator chimed as the doors opened, and they both walked in. Within the enclosed space, Videl became aware that this newbie was about a foot taller than her, and though he seemed not at all intimidating, just the sheer difference in height made Videl wish for higher, thicker shoe platforms. She told herself that in her next meeting with Officer Miso, he should give her several more pairs.

"So you were home-schooled, then, I'm guessing?" she asked him. Kami, she hated the way she had to look up at him! She could almost swear he would see through her disguise, and know she was a girl, because she was just _so_ _short!_

"Yes, I was. My Mom was the one who guided me through most of it, especially when I was younger." He flashed her a sheepish smile. Videl awkwardly returned it, not knowing what else to do. She had not planned on making a lot of friends – any, even – with the hopes of keeping her profile down low, but this boy was just so sincere, and Kami, it was his _very first_ day of school. She would not be responsible for making it one of the worst experiences of his life.

"My name is Del," she replied, her practice taking over her. "And I like to read."

"Read?" he jumped excitedly, closing the gap between them. He held his fists up, as if he wanted to take her hands, or put them on her shoulders or something, but etiquette probably made him stop. "Wow, I also love to read! Have you read Chayote's Theorem on the Time-Space Continuum? How about Rooibos's book on the statistical probability of food rain?"

Videl slowly distanced herself from the excited boy, inching herself towards the door, which fortunately opened up, and allowed her to spill into the lobby, with him trailing after her. Crap! She had not gotten so far into her back story to figure out what kind of books she wanted to read. She didn't expect to be interrogated about her favourite book on the first hour before she even left the building!

"Uh, no, none of those actually. I uhm... I tend to favour obscure books. Yeah. I... I feel bad for them. Collecting dust and all. You probably wouldn't know any of the ones I've read." Videl took a peek back at the boy, who now seemed a bit deflated. She still felt awkward having to look up at him. "Gosh, you're so tall."

"Hmm? Well, you're not so short on the other hand. I know men who are shorter than you!"

"Oh, do you now?" Videl felt herself relax. As a matter of fact, she kind of warmed up to him almost instantly after having said that. "So, what brings you to West City Academy?"

"Ah, my mom wanted me to have a more social experience when it comes to learning," he answered. "There wasn't much opportunity for that in the mountains."

"Mountains?" Videl asked. "You mean among the Mount Paozu ranges?" Those were the only ranges she had heard were inhabited.

"That's right! I'm actually from the 439 Mountain Area."

Videl couldn't help herself taking a double look at the boy walking beside her. They had now made it out of the building, and they were strolling on the walk-way towards the main building ten minutes away. He was dressed normally, if just a little old-fashioned. Though it was a little strange that his attire was so simple, she out of all people should know that wealth didn't necessarily correlate with outward appearances; even as the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, she had never dressed gregariously either.

She shrugged. Most kids in schools like these would never let one pass by without them asserting who they were, what company their parents managed, and how much income they had, as if financial matters were so trivial that they weren't afraid of flaunting them in small talk. Of course, none of them usually had anything to be afraid of, and boys were usually so hungry for dominance. If this boy was one of those people, she would eventually find out more about him and his family status, but if he wanted to keep quiet for now, that was fine with her as well. After all, she was afraid he would ask her about her life too, and she wasn't quite ready to divulge the few other lines of her backstory, which would be depleted in a quick half a minute.

"Well then, welcome to the city!"

"Thank you! My name's Gohan, by the way. Thank you for being very courteous to me."

Videl couldn't help but smile at that, though she tried very hard to not let it get to her. People didn't really describe her as 'courteous'.

A couple of other early-birds passed by them, joking about ghosts and magic cars, calling each other delinquents and chickens. They were a rowdy bunch who didn't seem to possess the anxieties of first-day-of-school mornings, and Videl envied them for a quick second.

Gohan chuckled beside her. "Well, I didn't think I would be hearing about ghosts here!"

Videl didn't either, until she had hit town yesterday on her neighbourhood exploration. "Didn't you hear? The entire city is still in a fuss about it. Apparently there were some 'supernatural' events that occurred a week ago."

Gohan cocked his head to the side, eyes curious. "What kind of 'supernatural' events?"

They were quite ridiculous, really; Videl expected the city folks to be more pragmatic than superstitious. But as it was, horror stories were circulating. "Apparently, some nights ago, the entire town lost power for several minutes, and people witnessed strange things, like glowing humanoids, ghost cars that could travel through buildings, people floating."

She watched as Gohan's eyes widened and his mouth firmed into a thin line, perhaps with disbelief or fear, but she couldn't figure out which. She shrugged. She had a similar reaction. First she was in total doubt, and then it occurred to her that this could perhaps be a clue to the case she was assigned to investigate.

It couldn't be an accident that the night of these supernatural events happened on _the_ _same_ night that the money that WCA lost were returned to them. There was obviously some correlation.

There were of course plenty of reasons why an entire city, technologically advanced as it was, would lose electricity; besides it had only been for sixty seconds, according to her calculation. She made certain of that. It was the strange stories circulating this black-out that were of interest to her. Where there was smoke, there was fire after all.

Gohan and Videl were hit with a wave of cool air-conditioning as they stepped inside the school building. Videl flashed her schedule out of her pocket, finding the room number for her first class.

"Vector calculus?" Gohan asked and waved his own schedule. "Me too! This is great."

She smiled at him, feeling sympathetic. He must feel so relieved for the companionship; Videl didn't think he'd do half bad by himself, but she knew how devastating nerves could sometimes be.

Officer Miso had selected the course for her specifically because it was taught by Mr. Foo Bar, one of the prime suspects. As a senior teacher, he was generally well-liked by the students; corky and fun, he was reputed to put a new spin on lecturing math courses. He definitely had reasons to believe he deserved the title of Head of Math Department. The question was, how bitter was he at having been denied the opportunity?

_Guess I'll find out what kind of a person he is soon enough,_ thought Videl. She and Gohan took a couple flights of stairs to the third floor, and settled in a classroom populated by about thirty desks and chairs. Only a few students were there at the time; they sat down in the middle row. She watched as Gohan took out his notebook and pencil, wrote down the date at the top, underlining it with a red pen using a ruler. Interesting. He also took out the required textbook for the course, then flipped to the middle of the textbook. Several pages of the back of his notebook were already filled with mathematical scribbles.

"What's that?" Videl asked, curious.

"Oh this?" Gohan pushed the notebook towards her so she could see what they were. "I started answering the chapter exercises. Warm up for the upcoming year." He explained.

Videl took a second glance at the notebook. Derivative and integral notations littered the page. Her eyes darted back to where Gohan had opened up his textbook.

Chapter 13.

Damn.

She gulped and pushed the notebook back to him, her mind reeling. This was a school for gifted students, what did she expect? _I thought their pockets were gifted_. Well, yeah, but some of the students could hoard thousands in scholarship for passing incredibly difficult entrance exams. She almost forgot that. And Gohan could certainly fit the bill.

All of a sudden, her hands felt cold, and she began swearing at Officer Miso in her head. She was unprepared for this! Be a spy, okay, fine! Plant her in an all boys' school. Okay. Incredibly risky, but still tolerable. Be a laughing stock among high class kids who had significant reputations and top-notch skills to back them up? That was a task _Videl_ would not shy away from. But she wasn't Videl here; she was _Del._ And what was Del? Officer Miso didn't even have the decency to grace her with an official back story, not even as an adopted son of some well-to-do city merchants. She wasn't even _allowed_ to fight and join sports clubs, lest she "give away" her identity! Damn that man!

_It's okay,_ she tried calming herself. _Remember, your job is not to stand out, but to blend in. Be invisible_. She would solve the case, accomplish her mission, and get on with her own education her own way. In the meantime, she'll keep her head down. And try to keep up. Because there was no way in hell she would allow herself to be the at the bottom of the food chain in this school; besides being at the bottom would surely garner people's – unwanted – attention.

Videl continued reassuring herself with those lines, when a three-note bell went off. The class room gradually filled with students. A short man with brown skin and a bald head stepped in. He wrote his name, 'Mr. Foo Bar' in neat calligraphy on the board. Then he set a large stack of papers on his desk.

"Welcome to Vector Calculus, my victims!" he followed the remark with a chuckle.

Videl leaned forward, studying the man. Though his tone was harsh and loud, his face was not unkind; as a matter of fact, he bore a glint in his eyes, the tell-tale sign of an old-fashioned sense of humour. There was a jump to his step that indicated he could be easy going... if he liked you.

"Now why don't we start off this wonderful year with failure, what do you all say?" He began passing the sheets of papers across each of the rows. "This is a test to see what level you are on in terms of your mathematical and analytical abilities. It will help me anticipate the upcoming year, and orient myself as to how I should approach to show you the light."

A set of stapled sheets was placed face-down on Videl's desk. She took out a pencil and an eraser, heart thumping in her chest, her mind screaming at Officer Miso. She had absolutely no preparation! The last time she took a math test was several months ago during finals of her previous year. She was going to fail this!

"Alright, you can all turn over your test now. You may begin."

Videl sighed and flipped the test.

...and it felt like facing an entire army, while she stood unarmed and wrapped in chains.

Videl had never faced an entire army while she was unarmed and chained, but if she ever did, she was certain it would feel like this. A series of heated and passionate expletives exploded through her mind, followed by the image of Officer Miso's flayed body.

Question one: _The Gaussian blur is used as a filter in many image processing software to produce a "blurred" effect. Show that the following equation is constant on the circle of radius r 0, centered at the origin_. What followed was a highly complex multivariable function.

She shook her head. She had no idea. Next question. _Find the unit binormal vec_ – ugh, who would ask such a stupid question?

Videl went through the entire test, reading the questions, and each time, her feelings sunk deeper and deeper. Finally, she picked up her pencil and tried to do whatever she could. Which was, all things considered, not that much.

When the bell rang to notify the end of first period, she was in a daze. She looked to the side and saw Gohan with his head down on his desk. Great. Mr. Mountain Boy was just sleeping; it was probably too easy for him. A bitterness pooled in her stomach, and she felt a tantrum coming, which was crazy, because she never had a full blown out tantrum in so long, but she felt like screaming, like pulling out someone's hair. When all the exams were collected, she stood up, zealous to get away from the room.

Gohan caught up to her in the hallway.

"What did you think about that?" he asked, not unkindly. But it struck a nerve, and Videl let out an irritated, "Bah!" and rushed to her next room without waiting for her new friend.

It was only when she got to her second class that she realized she had been too absorbed in the test to observe Mr. Foo Bar. However, even that jarring thought fled her mind as she was again subjected to the same treatment in her second class. And her third. And fourth. By the time the fifth one rolled around, she looked about her and realized for the first time that almost everyone else expected this. She didn't.

She walked back to the dormitory that afternoon in such low and irritated spirits. She was certain she failed every single one of those tests. She had never failed a single test in her _entire _life! Even when she was recruited as a justice enforcer in Satan City when she was fourteen, she still maintained an admirable standing when it came to her education. Most people would be surprised, but like the no-boy rule her father had imposed, getting good grades were one of those things that "the daughter of the man who saved the world" should follow. She was never going to come up with capsulization theorems, but she never once thought she'd fall below average.

Except the average was unbelievably high this time around. It irked her. It piqued her competitive nature, and the fact that she was quite helpless in this aspect made her angry.

Videl rushed back to her room. She closed the windows and made sure the door was locked. She took her phone, and just to be extra safe, jumped under the covers of her bed. She dialed her father's number. After several rings, a saccharine female voice answered the line.

"Howdy hoo, you've reached Hercule Satan's agent! If you're looking for information regarding media appearances –"

"Hey Prunes, this is Videl," Videl cut the woman off. "Get Dad for me."

"Oh hey sweetie! Just a moment."

Pop music played in the background on the other line for several seconds, before the boisterous voice of her father came through the receiver.

"Sweet pea! How's my little girl?"

Videl couldn't take it anymore, and burst out in a frustrated tone. "Dad, I'm dumb!"

There was silence for a minute on the other side. Then Hercule cleared his throat. "Uh... nah, sweetie, don't you talk like that! You're as smart as your papa!"

"That doesn't make me feel any better!"

"Hey, now, don't you think –"

"I'm serious. Everyone here is a genius! They all probably have A triple pluses on their transcripts!"

She heard a small chuckle. "Well, that can be easily fixed, now can't it? I'll pull some strings, and we can see if your transcript can also boast several of those pluses!"

"Dad!"

"Alright, alright!" she heard him sigh. She knew she wasn't being very articulate, and she was acting quite immature at the moment. But her father head dealt with these episodes before, and she trusted him to know how to deal with her. Sometimes, it was tough love: "get your act together or you'd be joining me on national TV for a week." Other times, it was peaches and cream.

"I'll get Prunes to search for some books for you. Good ones with pictures in them! Get you caught up with the rest of those geniuses. They'll be there by tomorrow or the next day."

"Thanks, Dad." She released a sigh of relief, and for the first time in several hours, smiled.

Then her father lowered his voice. "By the way, Viddy, how's the treasure hunt going?"

Treasure hunt: their code word for the mission.

"It's okay. I found out several things yesterday that might help me find the chest," she explained. Then she mimicked her father's hushed tones. "But things might get tricky. There's some weird stuff going on around the night the money was put back."

Hercule whistled. "Should I tell Miso?"

"No, not yet. I'll try to get more of a lead before I tell them about it. I should have more things by the end of the week when he expects my report. Hopefully."

"Okay," Hercule replied. "Be careful there, okay? If anyone lays a hand on you, you quit the mission and come straight back home!"

Videl laughed quietly. Just because her Dad suggested she accept the job, it didn't mean he was going to be any less lenient on her.

"Yes, Dad. I have to go now. Say hi to Prunes for me, properly. I think I kinda snapped a bit." After her father echoed her farewell, she turned off her phone.

She pushed the sheets away. Come to think about it, Prunes wasn't the only one she snapped at. Rich or not, she had manners to mind, and there was one other person who did not deserve her ire today.

* * *

AN: Aaaand, there you go. Chapter 1, the new version. Some of you might see the similarities from the previous writing, but I think the differences would be more stark.

I feel as if this approach would work better for a plot like this. The first version sported a Videl who tricked her way into school with a single-minded purpose, ignoring the consequences and ramifications of her actions. I didn't think this fit well with her personality. Videl would not bend the rules for anyone; if she's tough on law breakers, why would she break the law herself? I just didn't think it aligned with her principles, and trying to work around that terrible characterization breach was a pain.

Anyway, one of the things I fell in love with during my absence from this fandom is the concept of an unreliable narrator; many of the books I've read featured such a character. So what I'm trying to do is to include an unreliable narrator in this story. Just so you know, there would be four focalizers: Videl, Gohan, Sharpner and Erasa. I'm trying to see if I can work in at least one unreliable narrator among them. (I quite liked the idea of having all, but sadly I don't think I'm skilled enough to pull that off.) I actually don't believe I'm capable enough pulling *one* off, but we'll see.

Also, if any of you are interested, there are snippets for the first five chapters of this story on my blog. Just follow the links from my profile, and voila!


	2. Of Science Fairs and Cookie Monsters

AN: So, so, so. I tried very hard to fix up Gohan's POV at the beginning of this chapter. I still think I write him rather clunkily, and his scenes never come as smoothly as Videl's does. I often wonder why it is that a happy-go-lucky young man is so much harder to write? I thought I must have just been having writer's block at the time, but this chapter is about two months old, and coming back to polish it up didn't come easy.

Well, enough of my complaining. Here's chapter two.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Of Science Fairs and Cookie Monsters**

Gohan neatly returned his notebooks and pencils from his bag to his desk. He'd seen stranger days, but he had to admit that this one wasn't quite peachy-creamy, at least when compared to his expectations. He didn't anticipate to be tested so thoroughly on the materials in all his courses right away; from what he had heard of schools, teachers usually taught their students first before giving them exams. And even though one of his teachers said that those tests were for evaluation and orientation purposes, Gohan still thought it was just a _little_ odd.

Anyway, if he was to be honest to himself, he thought he did well. He was able to answer all of the questions; his math answers especially were precise to the hundredth digit, even though they were not allowed to use a calculator. Perhaps that would impress his math teacher. Boy, was he grateful that he listened to his mother when she told him to study those things when he was younger!

Classes aside, it looked like a good day to visit Bulma. He felt as if he was relatively settled in anyway. He finished pretty much all of the house keeping the previous day, and since the teachers hadn't given them homework as of yet, it would be the best time to pay a visit to his friend.

He finished putting away his things, and was about to turn to leave his room when there came a knock on his door.

_Huh?_ He wasn't expecting anybody. Perhaps someone was going to invite him to one of those ice-breakers he heard about... streaking in the streets, carjacking ice-cream trucks, booze hazing... Gohan shuddered. He'd read about them in those teenaged contemporary books that he bought to prepare himself for a life in the city. He was never one to judge so easily, but still sometimes he found city people a bit strange.

_You're way over-thinking this,_ he reprimanded himself. Surely those kinds of events were purely artistic in nature, designed by authors to make their books more interesting. He dashed to the mirror to see if he still looked presentable, and then rushed to get the door, just as the person on the other side started to knock again.

He opened it up to see Del on the other side.

"Hey Del!" he greeted, surprised to find that he was actually glad – and relieved – that it was Del. At least it was someone he had already talked to. "What's up? Do you need anything?"

"Yeah," Del lowered his voice, and looked at the carpeted floor for a moment. "I need to apologize."

"Apologize?" Gohan was even more surprised to hear that. "For what?"

"For running away from you this morning after math class," the small boy looked up at him now with hesitant eyes. Gohan couldn't help but feel some brotherly tenderness, a feeling only Goten and Trunks had evoked before. "Look, I didn't mean to act like a snob or make you feel unwanted. The test didn't go well for me at all, and I was just frustrated. I let my anger get the better of me. And I'm sorry."

Gohan stared at Del, wondering what prompted his guilty confession, because as far as Gohan knew, he hadn't done anything wrong. Not really.

"That's alright... I guess," Gohan rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, I don't think I have anything to forgive. At least, it didn't bother me."

Del looked up at him, surprised. "Oh," was all he said.

Then Gohan realized he was blocking the door way, and he flushed.

"Now _I_ have to apologize! How could I forget my manners?" He opened the door wider, and motioned for Del to head inside. "Come in! I should have invited you right away. I don't know why I forgot. Oh, mother would be so disappointed."

He saw Del hesitate and begin to turn away. "Ah... I can't. Thanks, but uhm..."

"Oh, I've done it now, haven't I? I'm such a bumpkin, I knew I would mess up something sooner or later–"

"Okay, okay, I'll come in!" Del exclaimed, slipping gracefully through the space between the door and its frame. "You don't have to feel bad about it. Honest." He looked around the room for a moment, slipping his small hands into his pockets.

Gohan looked around his room too... and _blanched._ What was he thinking inviting Del in, when there was absolutely nothing he could offer? No tea, no spring water, not even candied fruits! He turned back to his classmate and cringed. This was not going well at all.

"Sorry, but I have nothing to offer you," he waved sadly to the chair tucked under his desk. "Except a seat."

Del smiled. "That's alright. All I really wanted to do is to apologize."

Gohan returned his smile with a grin. "No worries. So how were the rest of your courses? I think I might have spotted you in literature class and physics, but you sat away from me."

Del frowned and shrugged. "Not good. Probably just as bad as in math class, perhaps even worse." He tried to laugh, but Gohan could tell he was frustrated about something.

"You know, I can probably help you a bit. I have some knowledge on the things we were tested on today."

Del shrugged. "Thanks, but I'm not sure if I can. It wouldn't be fair to you. I don't think your mother sent you here to teach, but to study. Besides, just a minute ago, I had some books ordered to help me with studying."

"Oh, if it's books you're looking for, I can also help you with those!" Gohan remembered all of the titles and authors of the books his mother had bought for him when he was younger. "Which subjects are you specifically looking into? I might have a couple of suggestions that you might want to try apart from the ones you've bought."

Del's shoulders sagged. "_All _subjects. And no offense Gohan, but I don't think I'm ready for your level of books."

"What? No, don't put yourself down like that, Del!" He began writing down a few titles of general introductory books for the subjects they shared together. "I can definitely help you along too, if you need it!"

Del's eyes widened. "No, no, no! I cannot accept that. I... uh... I'm a... I'm a really slow learner, you see, and you'll only get impatient with me, I'm sure."

"Oh," Gohan said, quite disappointed, before handing him the slip of paper. "Well, if you're sure. But if you have any questions, you can definitely ask me."

The other boy smirked then. "I guess it would depend on who's scarier: you or the teachers." They shared a chuckle, Del looking hesitant as if he wasn't sure he was supposed to be. It was odd; it reminded Gohan of how Piccolo looked when his mother forced him to try to learn how to drive.

Then Del awkwardly began to shuffle out of his door. "Well, I won't bother you any longer. Have a good day, Gohan!" He waved and jogged away from Gohan's room even before the door closed completely.

Okay, _definitely_ as awkward as Piccolo.

Gohan glanced at his watch, and checked his things one final time, before making his way to Capsule Corps.

-o-

Bulma was loquaciously happy to see him, and demanded to know everything about his experience at school so far.

"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret later," she mentioned. "But you have to tell me your story first!"

She invited him in her lab, where eight servers were wheezing at full processing speed, while her helpless printer spat out page after page of tabled data.

Gohan chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know what I can tell you, Bulma. So little has happened yet."

"Well, tell me whatever that little thing is!"

He told her about the tests he took earlier that day, and how surprised he was that that had been the first thing the teachers wanted to do. "No introduction at all! It was like they were trying to scare us. I mean, I honestly think I did fine, but I just found it strange."

"That's all?"

"Actually," Gohan thought the incident that occurred the previous day at the plaza. "I was wondering if you would know of a way that I could disguise myself on the fly. I came across some scums yesterday, but I couldn't do much because I was afraid of revealing my powers."

"A disguise, hm? I think... I think I might have something. It might need a bit of remodeling to fit your purposes, but if you'd be willing to wait a couple of hours, I can get it to you by then."

"Really, Bulma? That would be great!" Gohan exclaimed. "I wasn't even expecting to have it that soon."

She winked at him. "Anytime, Gohan! Besides, wouldn't it be quite funny to have you running around my city? Make sure to smile at the cameras too."

"Hehe, catching bad guys is enough for now. Being a local celebrity isn't really on top of my priority list. Besides, seems like you already have a local hero here yourself."

She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion. "I hope you're not talking about Vegeta. Or Trunks, for that matter. Because there are other nouns to describe them, and 'hero' wouldn't be a particular favourite of mine."

"No, definitely not Vegeta! I'm talking about someone a lot prettier!" Gohan laughed.

"...prettier?"

"Black hair. Short," Gohan started to list off qualities he remembered from the previous day. "Fights like the very incarnation of fierceness itself?"

"...I have no idea who you're talking about."

Gohan frowned. "Doesn't the name 'Videl' sound familiar to you?"

Bulma shot up from her seat, spilling to the ground some of the papers she had been observing. "Videl? You mean Videl Satan?"

"Er... Satan? Well, I don't know her last name, but if she's–"

Bulma interrupted him with a frantic waving to one of her opened laptops. "Gohan, there's this wonderful thing called the Interweb, where you can type stuff you're curious about, and information comes out. It's really useful, and we've only been using it since, I don't know, way before you were born. You need to become more tech savvy."

Gohan stood behind her and looked at the screen where she was typing in the name 'Videl Satan'. After half a second of loading, the page showed lists of online documents pertaining to Videl Satan. The right column was filled with pictures of the identified person, and others who were related.

"That's the girl you're talking about?" Bulma asked.

Gohan could merely nod, as the results affirmed what he already suspected after Bulma mentioned the girl's last name. Beside one of the pictures of the girl he saw at the plaza was another popular image that everyone in the world – even those who lived in secluded mountains like him – had seen at least once in their lives. It featured the 'Great Hercule Satan' standing at a stadium with a large golden belt hugging his waist, and title of 'World Champion' brazenly written across the top. Beside those images, the first document retrieved from Dragopedia had a one line summary stating, 'Videl Satan, born on June 17 Age 756, is more widely known as Hercule Satan's daughter.'

_Uh, you've got to be kidding me._

Not that he was particularly bothered, but boy, did it surprise him.

Bulma sent him a sideways look. "So, what's with you and miss Videl, huh?"

Gohan felt his cheeks heat up. "What do you mean? I just asked if you knew her!"

"What do I mean?" Bulma cleared her throat, deepening her voice as she said, "_Fights like the very incarnation of fierceness itself_. Sounds familiar?"

Gohan blushed deeper. "But you should have seen her fight! Really, she fights nothing like her father. No theatrics at all, just good old plain and effective martial arts. She was the one who subdued those criminals at the plaza yesterday. Did it rather quickly too, that I didn't even have to do much."

The blue-haired scientist cocked her head to the side, brushing her bangs away from her eyes. "That's strange. What's she doing here at West City?"

"You mean she doesn't live here?"

"No. She resides in her father's city. At least, last I heard of her anyway. She doesn't dwell in the spotlight much. Not like her father, so there's actually not much news about her. I heard she fights culprits there mostly."

"Oh. Maybe she got called over here for back-up?"

Bulma's eyes widened. "That's almost seven hours via an average copter! No, she must have been already here. I'm not surprised though. Ever since her father rose to fame, West City has been very friendly towards Satan City. They've made quite a lot of alliances already, politically and commercially. Why, haven't you heard? Even Hercule is endorsing your precious West City Academy!"

"Oh, is he now? I didn't know that!"

"Yup! The ads all went up last month or so. Good timing too, because..." Bulma trailed off, as she walked over to another desk. She opened the drawer, and showed Gohan a poster. "The first annual International High School Science Tournament is happening this year. I don't think it's a coincidence that Hercule began endorsing your school at about the same time this tournament is happening."

Gohan's eye twitched. What did Hercule even have to do with science? He thought the old man was pure jokes and laughs. But at the same time, he also knew companies lined themselves up in desperation trying to vie for the celebrity's endorsement. Apparently anything with Hercule's face on it tended to sell twice as much.

"West City Academy, of course, as you already know," Bulma continued. "Places high emphasis on the sciences. The various scientific institutions across the world only came up with this school tournament recently, and not all the details have been ironed out yet. They're waiting for all the specifics before broadcasting it officially. But here's the little secret I wanted to tell you."

Gohan perked up at that.

"I donated funds to your school when I learned about it. Capsule Corps is one of the companies who voted to put this tournament through, because whoever wins the tournament would get recruited to the company with the highest bid, and his or her research would be completely patented. Plus there are also some prize money and fame to go along with it."

"Ah, I see," Gohan nodded. "So you donated research funds to WCA to ensure that we'd have the resources to churn out the best projects at the tournament."

"That's right! They're a safe bet, especially now that you decided to go there."

The half-Saiyan laughed. "Thanks Bulma! So I take it that this is sort of like a science fair."

"But on a grander, more spectacular scale," Bulma added. "At least it better be! I donated a million zennis to your school!"

Gohan's eyes bulged. "A million zennies? That's a _lot_."

"If the projects are good, the money a company like Capsule Corps can make from patenting the students' ideas would exceed my investments. Which is why I'm letting you know early! Never hurts to start thinking about these things ahead of time." She gave him another devilish wink.

They both exited her lab where Bulma told him he could catch up with Trunks, while she tinkers away at his disguise. After thanking her, Gohan took an elevator up to the residence floor, and knocked on Trunks' play room. He found a grouchy Trunks there, who spent ten minutes ranting about how annoying his father was. The rest of their time was occupied by playing various video games, and Trunks showing off some of the new fighting tricks he learned. Bulma called him down just after Trunks had accidentally knocked down a lamp, and begged Gohan not to tell his mother.

"Tell her what?" he asked. "I didn't see anything!" He winked, before saying farewell.

Bulma presented him with a watch, ordinarily looking enough. Digital numbers showed the time, and there were buttons on the side to handle various settings.

"Try the red button."

Doing as indicated, he found his vision shaded by a dark visor, and there came a light weight that pressed around his head. His body was covered in dark spandex, and his torso was wrapped in a bright green tunic, held together by a tight white belt. He looked up to see his image on the full-body mirror Bulma had set up just for this moment.

He. Looked. AWESOME.

"Wow!" he exclaimed with glee as he struck several poses in front of the mirror to test the outfit's flexibility. "You've really outdone yourself this time, Bulma! This is great!"

"I do try. I hope that would do just fine?"

"Oh absolutely! Thanks Bulma, you're the best!"

-o-

Sharpner knocked on the heavy double doors of his father's office. He had flown in right after class had finished to Stilo Inc.'s headquarters where he knew his father would be. The man almost never left the place. He waited for the usual curt "Come in," before opening the door. He straightened his shoulders, and lifted his chin. He schooled his face into utter masculinity.

"You called, sir?" Sir. Of course, because he wasn't really this man's son. No, Sharpner scoffed. This man had no family. Only subordinates and employees. And peasants.

The man sitting on the tall-backed leather chair didn't even look up. There were piles of folders and bound papers fighting for space on his already extended desk. The intense coolness of the air-conditioner hit Sharpner as soon as he stepped away from the hallway, and the door shut softly behind him. The carpet was clean, though there was a spot of coffee stain by his father's desk. Sharpner knew that although the man did it himself, one of the servants would get fired over it.

"Well you certainly took your time getting here. Scotch said he called you _yesterday,_" his father stated, as the printer behind his desk wheezed into life.

Sharpner shrugged. "I figured since you don't pay me for my time, I can spend it how I choose."

His father then looked up, sending him a glare so piercing Sharpner thought the people from the next building would have cardiac arrest over it.

"You're right," Mr. Pencil tossed the document he was reading to the side of his desk, and focused his attention on his son. "I don't technically own your time. But I do own the house you live in, and those clothes on your back, and the food you've eaten the past seventeen years, and your precious education. So tell me, son. Isn't your _time_ just a little bit of payment for all the things I've done for you?"

_You mean all that crap?_ Sharpner thought, and he just sneered.

His father continued. "Tell me, what was your average last semester?"

"A... C+," Sharpner said. It was a disappointing grade, of course, but no man should let that stop him. He filled his voice with saturated pride.

"Well then," Mr. Pencil shuffled quite roughly through the drawers filled with files by his side. "Since you're so busy getting a C+, why don't I add a little fun in your life and get you to do something else? Something right up your alley."

Sharpner felt a stone weigh down his heart. Suddenly, it seemed as if strings had been attached to his wrists and ankles. But he knew that fear was never appreciated on a face like his, so he turned towards his other option: irritation and anger.

"What happened to the last _fun_ I did for you?" he asked, his voice roughened.

His father looked up for a moment, a nice steady stare that would have melted a doorknob. "That was for the last campaign. When you run a business, you don't advertise once and let it go, Sharpner. Are you sure you deserved that C+? Because it seems to me as if you're only at a D level. Actually, I might even be pleasantly surprised if you were."

Sharpner could feel his ears redden, and his fists unintentionally hardened their grip. He hated these little projects his father gave him. Why, three years ago, he lost a girlfriend over it. His father, of course, didn't care. He laughed and said the project-girl had been a lot better anyway.

"I'll pardon that C," the 'king' replied. He pushed a piece of paper in Sharpner's direction, urging him to take it.

"C+," Sharpner corrected. He took the page and looked at its contents. Contempt rose in him as he exited the office.

He folded the paper into a tiny, tiny square as he walked back out of his father's office and back down to the ground level of the high sky-scraper. It was absurd! The whole thing. This whole life! Sharpner wished Cell had destroyed Stilo Inc. seven years ago. Then... then everything would just be different.

Only when he was seated inside his copter did he take out the paper again. It was a profile of a girl. Daughter of a respected, local politician, it said. She was pretty enough that Sharpner wouldn't really mind being seen around her, but Kami, how he hated these projects!

He revved up his vehicle, and shot up to the sky, heading for West City.

The first project had been when he was fourteen. His father came home from work, raging like a late typhoon over lost opportunities in sales pitches. "People just don't know about us! They're getting their supplies from other well-known companies already established in the trade. They don't want to take a risk with someone they don't know. They'd rather stay safe."

Mr. Pencil shut himself in his room, brooding for the next five days. Then he came out with an idea as trivial as it was shallow.

"We just need to create some buzz!" he declared. "People need to see us in the news, the tabloids, the magazines!"

They all thought he had gone crazy. Not only his colleagues, but his entire family as well. The only thing the tabloids would get them was a bad rep. Many people doubted Mr. Pencil.

_Until it worked_.

And part of it, part of the success of this so-called buzz generation, was because Sharpner was forcibly hooked up with the younger sister of a popular rock singer. Yeah okay, they had to pay her for the first date, but threatened with no games and no sports in an entire year, Sharpner was pressured into keeping the relationship going. Oh, all those lies he told the poor girl. But for sixteen months, they were the apple of the cameras' eyes, and all of a sudden, more and more people became interested in the Pencil family and their business.

Sharpner's grip hardened on the drive stick as he remembered the results of that stunt. The sad thing was that he had already been in a relationship – oh it was an amazing first love – and he hadn't even been able to explain the situation to her, lest the whole plan went down the drain. Nope, he could do nothing as his girlfriend confronted him about all the pictures in the magazines, and all he could do was shrug.

There had been countless stunts since then. Sharpner personally thought that Stilo Inc. no longer needed the type of publicity he provided, since it was now an internationally well-known corporation. Yet he still found himself meeting with random girls whose names and phone numbers he couldn't be bothered to remember.

When he arrived in West City, it had been dark for several hours, and he was grouchy as heck. He capsulized his copter when he reached the driveway of the academy. He had pulled out the profile of the girl again, and felt an excruciating temptation to rip it to pieces and throw it away. What was it to him? Who was she anyway? She was just another testament to his father's insatiable need to control those around him.

It was a grave insult, even if Sharpner had really been interested in all these women. His father didn't even trust him to find a suitable girl on his own to help him further his goals! As if he did not even know the type of girls that could help his father and those that could not. Oh, Sharpner knew for sure. As a matter of fact, he could probably pick better women than his father could. What did his dad know about women anyway? The two he had chosen for himself left him, one driven to death by an apoplectic fit, and the other packing her bags in the name of freedom after bearing three little devils.

Sharpner snickered as he made his way up to his dormitory on the eighth floor. Damn right, he could choose a better girl than his father.

As he exited the elevator onto his floor, he passed by the daily news bulletin. And spotted, on one of the leaflets, like a heavenly gift bestowed upon he who was in need, a picture of the perfect girl he could lord over his father's head.

Videl Satan.

Daughter of the World Champion.

Sharpner found himself crumbling the profile of Ms. Little Politician, as he approached the news bulletin. The leaflet announced how the young girl saved an entire plaza the previous day from the vicious quarrel of two gangs.

Heck, now was that not someone a million times better than the twittering girls his father assigned to him? Strong, smart, beautiful, and had the entire world wound around her finger tips. What would be a better way to rub his competence on his father's face than the successful courtship of the precious Videl Satan?

Sharpner grinned, ripping the news leaflet from the bulletin, and heading off to his room in much better spirits than when he left it.

-o-

_Time for some midnight investigation_.

Videl didn't exactly know what she expected to find in the middle of the night. Most of the people were asleep, and that made it very convenient to move around without looking incredibly conspicuous, but that also meant that she would probably not find anything at all.

A lot of sneaky crimes happened at night though, she reminded herself. And if stealing 600K zennis from a top-tier high school wasn't sneaky, then Videl didn't know what was. Officer Miso hypothesized that the person who accessed the funds accounts directly would have been familiar with the school. It was confirmed that West City Academy made all of its transactions within the school premises; it was one of the few institutions who could afford to have all of its databases inside the building itself, not outsourced like most did.

Videl snuck slowly down the hallway of her dorm floor, wet hair in tight pigtails framing the side of her face. She wouldn't take the elevator, since it did not provide her with a lot of mobility, so she rounded the corner to the end of the hallway where the stairs were located. She found it quite funny that she should be roaming about disguised as herself. It would not do that she be wandering as Del; if someone saw her, she would not be able to explain her presence. But if someone saw her as Videl, she could always just say someone had reported something fishy in this location.

Officer Miso gave her a map of the floor plan of the school. At the heart of the main building's basement was the data center and the servers. She already knew how well protected it was. Three passwords protected the iris scanner; one would have to pass the iris scan to open the fingerprint scanner, and then the doors could be opened. But that's not all. Within the computer lab itself, one would have to type six more passwords to log onto the server, and each of these passwords were changed every day.

Videl jogged swiftly from shadow to shadow, closing the ten-minute distance from the dormitory to the school building. The building itself was open 24/7 to students and staff, who were welcome to use the public facilities. Many students had studying prime times at midnight, and WCA prided itself in facilitating any means of studying for its students. She did not have a hard time getting inside, though she had to time it just right when the cameras trained at the doorways rotated away from her, before slipping in.

Once she got to a particularly camera-free zone – cameras were also marked on the map given to her – she sat back in the shadows for a moment to try to formulate her goal properly. When she was fighting, she always knew what the goal was: subdue her opponents. Even when she was helping the cops around the city, her goals had always been pretty clear; save the hostages, lead the people to safety, etc., etc. But with the whole spying thing, she didn't even know what she was supposed to look for in the first place! Okay, so she was given a list of sketchy folks, but what kind of information was she looking for to figure out which one of them was the true culprit? What if none of them were? It wasn't like they were just going to come right out and say something.

She put it down as another item on the list of the things to bring up during her next meeting with Miso. She followed the hallway until it curved into a rather remote area that forked into two more hallways. She kept behind a statue of an ancient alumni to take out her map from her pocket; she was just judging which path to take when she saw a shadow quickly move into a room to her right.

_Strange_. _The map says that's the kitchen._

Would one of the staff enter the kitchen at midnight?

Curiosity getting the better of her, she tiptoed her way to the door. The doorknob was one of those old ones that didn't yet utilize electronic cards, so there was a keyhole in the middle. That was strange; for an institution with a reputation for security, West City Academy seemed to lack a bit in the edge cases. Videl was starting to believe just how possible it could have been for the thief to steal so much money.

She grabbed the latch and slowly tried to turn it. Not locked; figures. Either it wasn't locked in the first place, or the person inside wasn't worried about being found there. She couldn't afford to go into the room without prior knowledge of what she was about to find. What if the person was just on the other side of the door? She'll get caught immediately.

The map indicated that the entire kitchen occupied the space from this hallway all the way to the side of the building, meaning that she could get to the same room through the windows on the opposite side. Quickly going back the way she came, she rounded the building until she reached the part of the outer walls adjacent to the kitchen. There was a row of windows, probably meant to let the heat and the greasy fumes out when the kitchen was busy. It wasn't difficult for Videl to pick the locked windows and heave herself into the kitchen quietly. She was quite surprised. The windows were easy to breach and the doors weren't electronic... if someone truly wanted to enter the building, they pretty much had free admission through the kitchen.

_Maybe the security enforcers thought nobody would enter through a kitchen_. Petty burglars certainly wouldn't. But serious burglars... well, those would take advantage of any weak spots. _It's the kitchen, for Kami's sake! I might just be over thinking the situation. _But she would never satisfy her curiosity if she didn't act now.

She heard a noise somewhere in the middle of the room. There was the unmistakeable sound of crumpling plastic, the opening of cardboard boxes... was someone raiding the kitchen?

The young crime fighter took one step at a time, easing her way into the middle of the room. The moonlight was shining from the windows, so her shadow could betray her. She got down onto her knees, and began half-crouching, half-crawling her way to where the sounds were coming from.

She heard a satisfied belch, a soft one, followed by a murmur of "Not bad."

The next table over was three feet away, and the bare space between the one she was leaning against and the other was bathed in moonlight. She had to be fast if she did not want to be spotted. Slowly, gathering energy, she poised herself to leap forward from a crouching position. In a blink, she crossed the chasm between the two tables, and settled silently against the other one, getting closer to the middle of the room.

Videl held her breath for a moment, and to her dismay, the sounds had ceased. The person had noticed her. They were now mutual in their waiting for each other, waiting for a sign to fight or flight. Videl closed her eyes and tried to enhance her other senses, ears straining to hear something... anything. From her pocket, she felt for an object and caught a pen. In a fluid motion, she threw it to the other side of the room, hoping it would trick the person into thinking that she was in a different location that she really was.

The pen clanged on the floor, the sound echoing in the room. But the room was as silent as a grave after that.

Videl let out a frustrated breath. Okay. At least she knew she had been dealing with a trespasser. If the person really had been welcome in this place, he or she would not have hesitated to seek _her_ out, since she would be the one in the questionable position. But the other person had hidden away, like she did.

After several minutes of immobility, Videl decided she had had enough, and decided to peek over the table.

The room was empty.

There were open cookie boxes at the counter in the middle of the room, and some orange peels and banana peels discarded by the floor.

She stood up fully, and scanned the entirety of the kitchen. Could the culprit be hiding?

After she spent almost an hour looking about the kitchen – opening pantries, fridges, even cupboards – Videl decided to leave. She took a picture of the mess left behind by the thief.

Perhaps, this was nothing. Maybe stealing into the kitchen was just one of those things that boys did all the time. She did not know. But it was better to be safe than sorry, so she would add it again to the list of things to report.

She sighed. Well, at least something happened. After all, she had deemed that the worst case scenario would be if she did not discover anything strange. Kitchen theft? Well, it was not the re-incarnation of Cell, but it wasn't something to be swept under the carpets either.

-o-

Gohan walked briskly to the open lounge for students where a few of them were sharing beer and looking over their textbooks. He tried not to run completely, because if anything, he had learned that that would only attract more attention.

Aw, he rarely cursed his Saiyan side due to its usefulness, but to function like a Saiyan, one must eat like a Saiyan. He wasn't used to having dinners with portions as small as the ones provided by the school cafeteria. He hadn't been prepared for that at all; the two course meal was simply a snack to him. He had money in his room, but sadly he brought only enough for the week to purchase school supplies and the occasional incidentals.

Gohan's guts tingled with guilt, knowing he had just broken one of his mother's most intense rules. In a way, he himself couldn't believe he'd just_ stolen_ from his school. But he was getting desperate, and the school kitchens were easier to access than some random store out on the streets. Besides, he planned on replacing those cookies anyway.

He sighed and exited the building, heading back to the dormitory.

The thing was... what bothered him the most about tonight was not the fact that he had snuck into the school's kitchen, almost gobbled up all of their supplies of cookies and muffins, and _almost_ got caught in the process.

The weirdest thing was _by whom_ he almost got caught.

There was a split second where a chi sparked amidst the darkness, a second that alerted him he was being watched. It was momentary, but very prominent. And it was so noticeably clear to him because he could not just forget a chi like that, a chi so saturated with human fierceness.

No, what really bothered him was... what was Videl Satan doing in West City Academy in the middle of the night?

* * *

AN: How is it so far? Let me know if things are boring you guys. I really need to set things up in order for events to make sense and for the characters' motivations to be understandable. But I can understand if things are going rather slowly and your interests aren't being piqued. A good story should be able to unfold its events while not losing the readers' interests.

So, let me know what you think!

And thanks for reading!


	3. Of Superheroes and Long Lost Friends

AN: So I apologize if the first two chapters had been a little dry. I really need them though to set up the plot for the story. I'll try to take things a little slow this chapter, so the relationships can develop quite nicely. Sometimes I forget, being so caught up in the plot, that I also need to develop the characters' motivations in order for the story to work out. Otherwise, it'll feel a little disconnected and forced? Ugh, writing is hard!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Of Superheroes and Long Lost Friends**

The books came by the end of the week, just like her father promised. They were delivered to Videl's dorm at the crack of dawn – these West City deliverers sure were hardworking – on Friday morning, right on time for her to quit her self-pity before she once again attended her classes that day.

Her classes, though not as dreadful as the first day had been, were still cruelly irksome. The teachers were pitiless, assigning readings and question sets that took hours to complete, all expected the next day. Videl tried to avoid staying up so late at night, because she knew how damaging that would be to her brain, but now she had to wake up at 5:30 am in the morning to continue working on her homework. It was only the fifth day in, and she was already exhausted.

Not good.

She took the books out of the box, admiring their shiny new covers and the smell of freshly pressed papers. Flipping through them, she was almost disheartened to find that she still could not understand any of the ideas she came across, but perked up a little when she found lots of diagrams, with understandable captions written on the bottom. Like her father promised, the books were filled with images. She'd always been quite a visual learner.

Videl snatched her mobile phone out from beneath her sheets, and sent her father a quick thank you message.

7:32 – _Thanks, Dad! That was fast._

A few moments later, the device beeped with a response from her father.

7:39 – _No problem, sweet pea. Just a reminder you don't need to be stressing yourself out too much. The money is back. That's the most important part for us._

7:41 –_ I know, Dad. But Miso is right that this is at least worth giving a small shot. If things get too bothersome, we can call it quits._

She put the books on her desk, picking up a couple she thought she needed to begin with. The troubling thought remained that if she hardly found time to finish all of her homework, how could she expect to engage in a personal ramp-up _and_ keep up with the lessons? Maybe... maybe she should accept Gohan's deal after all.

_No!_ She told herself she wouldn't get too involved in the social life here at school. She would be putting everything at risk!

Despite that, she couldn't help but think about Gohan's kind smile and gentlemanly manners. If she was careful, she could maintain a warm friendship with Gohan without endangering her mission. Even if she made a mistake, Gohan did not look like the type to pick up on oddities like that; he was from the mountains after all! Like her, he was in strange territories, which meant he was probably not well versed in what constituted an ordinary life here either. Besides, if Del Natas was required to be a shy, socially-challenged guy to keep attention away from herself, wouldn't Gohan be a perfect companion to observe and to model?

_Alright, but I have to think through this clearly. I cannot jump into decisions, just because my pride is at stake._

For now, all she would ask him was to point her out to the most important parts of the book, to the sections most relevant to their syllabus, and to the fundamental concepts she must certainly know at the outset. That wasn't too unreasonable, was it?

Videl took one last peek at herself in the mirror, ruffled her wig at the front, then exited her dorm room. One of the things she was infinitely glad about was that up here in the higher floors, each room was given their own bathrooms. The lower floors had to share one common shower room, which would obviously be extremely problematic for her.

The elevator came and went twice, but she ignored it until Gohan came out of his dorm. From the past four days, she had an estimate of when her floormate was most likely to leave for school. Like usual, he wore a shy but energetic grin. His bag was slung casually over his shoulder. And like usual, his attire was spotless, free of wrinkles and stains.

"Good morning, Del! How are you doing?"

Videl shrugged, and assumed the lower-pitched voice she donned when she was in her role. "Doing alright. Had to wake up early though to finish the Lit reading."

His eyes widened. "Oh, what did you think of Kernel's short story? It was fascinating, wasn't it?" Videl chuckled, just in time as the elevator opened again. Gohan had a unique – and she had to admit, quite endearing – trait of actually listening to a person's response when asked how they were doing. Most people she had interacted with, since probably junior high, would shrug off the answer, and instead talk about something else. People were _rarely_ interested in how you were doing these days. But she noticed that Gohan genuinely was.

"I thought the first part was a little boring, filled with flowery prose that did nothing to improve the piece," Videl replied. "But that ending – wow, what an intelligent woman Ms. Pebble was. I wouldn't see that twist if it had hit me on the face!"

Gohan laughed good-naturedly and agreed with her. They made their way to the school building, and proceeded to their classroom for math class. By the time lunch break came around, Videl had solidified her resolve about asking for Gohan's help, telling herself that educational endeavours did not necessarily entail personal closeness. It _may_ lead to it, but she was confident that she'd have enough self-control to prevent that from occurring.

"Hey Gohan," she began as they settled down to eat. "Remember your standing offer about helping me out with some of my courses? I was thinking I'd accept after all."

"Sure thing!" Gohan grinned back at her as he unpacked the lunch he carried. They were outside on one of the wooden benches parked strategically under the canopy of a bushy tree. She watched as he took out tupperware after tupperware from his lunch bag, each one containing a delicious feast. When he caught her looking at his lunch, he laughed uneasily and scratched the back of his head. "It's a lot, huh? I didn't expect the school to serve so little food, so I got hungry the first few days. Thankfully though I have a friend in the city and she offered to give me capsulized lunch boxes each week."

Videl blinked. The school served so little food? She could hardly finish the three course meals during dinner. At lunch time, the students were given only one pack of meal, but it contained quite enough to sustain the students through the next three hours.

"Want some of these?" Gohan tilted one of the containers to reveal seafood fried rice and large spring rolls. Now that she thought about it... yeah, she did.

But she couldn't! Not food. She wasn't ready to go to that level yet. Things always become more complicated after two people had shared food. Mild tutoring? Sure, that wasn't _that_ problematic. Food? Not an option for now.

"Ah, no thanks! Mine is more than enough."

"So what do you need help with? Is it math?"

She pulled out the textbooks she brought along. "Math, among other things. I got these books today, and I was wondering if you could point out all the relevant topics I really need to know about, like _right away_."

Gohan shifted closer to her – which made her want to pull back, but she thought it would appear strange, so she held her breath and stayed where she was. He inspected the books, flipping through them back and forth, and marking the pages that he told her she might want to look over.

"Which school did you come from?" Gohan asked. "I think most schools would have covered these concepts here," he pointed to several chapters, "but I'd need to know what you already know to point you to the right path."

Videl shrugged, and decided to tell the truth. Sometimes the best way to keep track of all your lies was to align them with some kind of honesty. "Orange Star High."

"Orange Star?" Gohan looked at her with wide eyes. "Isn't that in Satan City?"

Videl nodded. "Yup. City of the World Champ, alright."

"That's a long way away!" Gohan remarked. Videl was surprised that that was the first comment he had to make; usually Satan City residents were asked if they had ever met the very Champ himself. Well, Gohan was from the mountains after all; perhaps Hercule Satan wasn't as luxurious a topic over there as he was in his own city.

She felt a warm pleasantness. It was nice. Nice to not be associated with any kind of prestige and celebrity status – and all the implications that came with them – for the first time.

"Long way? Look who's talking, mountain boy," she retorted, smiling back at him. "I don't think coming from another city, even though several hours away, can really be compared to coming down from the Paozu mountains."

"Hehe, that is true," he chuckled, and begin flipping through the pages again. Videl told him which concepts she was already familiar with, but apart from the first couple of chapters, she couldn't offer any more comments.

For a while Gohan was quiet while he continued to mark some of the pages of the textbooks before them. And then he looked back up at her with a shy gleam in his eyes.

"Have you heard of Videl Satan?"

She choked on the fried noodles in her mouth.

_Shit! Holy smokes!_

Time's up. Her internal alarm was going off. She must flee this now red-zoned lunch table.

How could she have ever hoped that they would not cross this bridge? She brought up the topic of Satan City herself! How careless! What a lousy time to start thinking about keeping track of her lies.

"Uh... what made you ask that?" Videl began packing her chopsticks away and putting the lid back on her plastic food container.

"Well, you're from Satan City," he explained. "I heard Videl Satan helps fight crimes there. Have you ever seen her?"

"Nope. Never. I'm quite... reclusive, you know. Even back home. Never really had much opportunity to go outside, so I don't really get to interact with vigilantes, if you know what I mean." She placed the lunch box inside her backpack, and began reaching for her books.

"Oh, you're leaving already?" Gohan asked looking disappointed. "But I haven't taken a look at the Physics textbook yet!"

"Uh, yeah, I really have to –"

"Oh, I know what it is!" Gohan exclaimed, eyes wide with chagrin.

"...wait, you do?"

"You don't like talking about the Champ, do you?" he smiled kindly. "That's okay. I can understand. If you've lived in Satan City for a long time, I'm sure you're pretty fed up with talk of him."

Videl blinked. Okay, she could play along with this. "Yeah," she sighed. "You're exactly right."

He beamed. "Well, why don't we talk about something else, huh? Actually, I know a few things you might be interested in!" his smile grew wider, more excited.

_Really, now?_ And here she was just thinking that Del couldn't have been so transparent that his motivations could be read so easily. Ugh, she really needed to take acting classes.

"It's about a science fair!" he whispered, as if sharing a vile secret conspiratorially.

_Oh! _Well, at least her efforts of making Del look like a nerd was going well.

"Wow, a science fair!" she exclaimed, trying to act excited about the prospect.

"But bigger," Gohan said. "Much bigger! It's going to be an international tournament among high school kids. There are major companies who would be funding the research projects. The winner of the fair would be recruited to the company who gave the highest funds to the school the winner came from, _and_ their project would be fully patented."

"Interesting," Videl said. And she realized that she wasn't pretending anymore. If major companies were giving out funds to schools – and this whole tournament thing sounded like it would be pretty expensive – could this perhaps be related to the financial thefts in West City Academy? "How come this isn't well known yet?"

"Oh, they are trying to keep things on the down low right now, while the details are still being ironed out. They don't want anyone to get a lead on anything, but I got insider access!" He beamed. He truly seemed as if he was zealous about this whole thing.

"Insider access? What do you mean?"

He leaned in closer, and much to her chagrin, she found herself blushing. _Videl, stop that!_ She reprimanded herself. She looked away from him instead, but still she could feel his breath on her cheeks the way he spoke to her so closely.

"I received the news from Bulma Briefs herself! Capsule Corps is investing quite a bit in it."

Hold on. Red flags.

"Bulma Briefs?" she glanced back at him, incredulous. "You mean, the CEO of Capsule Corps?"

"Yeah!"

"You're acquainted with her?"

Gohan nodded. "She's an old family friend."

What? Bulma had connections in the Paozu ranges? This was startling news! How could a humble boy from the mountains be _friends_ with one of the richest women in the world? She didn't mean to be so judgmental, and it wasn't like the prospect was entirely impossible, but she just thought... she had always assumed people like Bulma (and to an extent, her own father), would be spending their days making connections with other powerful people.

This could mean two things: her assumption had been wrong and totally baseless, or that Gohan was actually from a powerful lineage that had somehow managed to evade the attention of the rest of the world.

"She even helped me pay the tuition fees for this school," Gohan went on.

"Oh, I thought you were on scholarship," she said, trying to mask the sound of gears turning in her brain. She had to keep up some semblance of conversation.

'I am, but WCA doesn't give nearly enough to cover the expenses." He even held up his tupperware. "She's also the one who gave me the capsules for these!"

"I hope you don't think I'm being too nosy, but what's your family name?"

"Son." He didn't look like he was bothered she asked.

Son Gohan. There was a familiarity to the sound of that name, not exactly the same, but similar enough; it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite get a grasp on it.

Hmm... Videl made sure to file this new information away in her mind to dig up later. She was sure there could be more to this than it seemed. It could be entirely innocent, but her hunches tended to be right, and she wasn't going to ignore the insistent pulsing in her guts that told her there was something fishy about all this.

When she realized that Gohan was gouging her reaction, she smiled. "That's really interesting! I didn't know you were affiliated with such an amazing woman, Gohan. But looking at how well-mannered you are, I don't doubt that you probably have a hoard of them at your beck and call!"

Gohan blushed, and denied her insinuation. "Nah, it's just Bulma, really. She met my parents years ago, way back when. It's nothing recent." He laughed.

-o-

That afternoon once classes were all over, Videl locked herself away in her dorm room.

Reporting time.

Closing all the windows and the door, she double inspected her small room to make sure it was impossible for anyone to spy or glance in on her. Then she went to her desk, fired up the app on her computer that created a secure and encrypted connection through a VPN to the West City Police Department headquarters. Since this would be a quick catch up, she wasn't required to visit their headquarters. They set up their interactions that way; Miso thought it would be much more conspicuous if Videl had to frequently go back and forth to their station. They saved those for the big reports and planning.

She logged onto the video streamer, and within seconds, Officer Miso's face appeared.

"Del Natas," she replied. "Here to report on the treasure hunt."

Miso grinned, and winked. "Oh, hello there! Who dressed you up this morning, young 'un? Here I thought you were a shabby bookworm who lost their way in Cyberspace." He let out a good natured laugh.

Videl rolled her eyes. Miso was easy going, but that also made it difficult to bargain with him.

"Oh, I don't know, those shoe platforms you gave me don't seem to be working," Videl teased.

"Well I'll send another pair or two your way, how about that?"

"Thanks." Another window popped up at the bottom right of the screen, showing the video stream for one of their other expected companions.

"Hey, sorry I'm a little late," the woman replied, pushing away her deep blue hair from her eyes. Mrs. Bay B. Blue was their contact in West City Academy itself. She was the one who reported the theft in the first place. In order to contain the scandal, they kept the news within a small circle made up of selected school staff, cops, and Videl and her father.

Speaking of Hercule, he logged on a little after Blue did, looking a little cramped and uncomfortable.

"Are you in a bathroom?" Videl asked.

"Yeah. In the Star 97.1 studio. I have a radio interview in five minutes," Hercule explained, clearly trying to keep his voice down.

"You don't have to come to these meetings at all, Mr. Satan," Officer Miso said. "Videl can relay messages to you if you want. It's more risky if you keep doing this. What if you get caught?"

"Hey, I've got a lot at stake here!" Hercule exclaimed, and then realized just where he was. He lowered his voice as he continued, "I just endorsed this school! What would happen to my credibility if word got out that WCA loses more than half a million zennies on a whim? We have to catch this guy immediately!"

Mrs. Bay B. Blue nodded. "Yeah, something tells me this wouldn't be an isolated incident. The culprit got away with too much for far too little. There's a good chance they'll try again."

"Plus, let's not forget that the value stolen seems much too precise to simply be a mischievous theft. We're dealing with a pro here," Officer Miso said. "Well, Videl, what do you have for us today?"

Videl shrugged. "Not much actually. A couple of curious rumours and a hungry thief raiding the school kitchens. That's about it."

"Tell us more about the rumours."

"Glowing and flying humanoids, cars going through buildings... things you could probably see in a movie."

Blue gasped. "I heard a little bit about those! I thought they _were_ from a movie. They're real after all?"

"As real as rumours can be," Videl said. "But get this. Apparently these strange occurrences happened three days after the theft. At midnight."

She let that fact sink in among her peers. Officer Miso was the first to realize the implications. "Three days! Why, that was when we – hold on, why didn't we know about this then? Around what time did it happen?"

"I really don't know much about the details," Videl said. "Only the vague content of the rumours. Most of the people I've heard talking about these rumours were young people. Which wouldn't be surprising since a lot of youths stay up late at night doing who knows what."

"Well, maybe they were a bit too tipsy to see exactly what was going on," Hercule chimed in. "It could be possible that these rumours hold absolutely no weight."

Miso whistled, his brows drawing close together. "I'd understand why we might have missed it if it happened after the operation. But if it happened _during_ or before... don't you think it's much too big for us to not have noticed?"

"The black out had only been for sixty seconds," Videl reminded them, though if she was trying to reassure them or herself, she couldn't quite tell. Could something so big really have happened in such a short time?

"Rumours don't usually start _during_ an event," Blue said consolingly. "Usually they come to life shortly after the incident. Maybe Hercule is right. It could just be figments of the imagination of some late-night troublemakers."

Videl nodded at the possibility. "Aside from that, on Monday night I found somebody sneaking and eating in the school's kitchens. I didn't get a good look at him, but he was there, and I could tell he wasn't supposed to be, because he ran away when I made some noise. I know that all our prime suspects are from the staff, but couldn't it be possible that the thief is a student?" Videl had realized this after that night, and had made sure to inspect her classmates extra closely.

Officer Miso shook his head. "This can be just a petty brat who feels too constrained with getting whatever he wants, and kitchen theft sounds adventurous enough. But I wouldn't discount it immediately. After all, anyone who is able to steal into the school's well-guarded data centre would have no qualms whatsoever with breaking and entering a kitchen."

There wasn't much that the others could also offer. It was difficult to analyze a situation when there were still so many unknown variables. Videl mentioned the international science fair that many corporations were planning to host, but just like the previous two things she reported, they could not quite make out how everything fit in.

"Perhaps we can find out which companies would be participating," Blue suggested, and Officer Miso approved that as an inexpensive next task. They wrapped up their meeting with Miso telling Videl to keep at it, and to visit the station by Sunday night.

When their conference fully ended, Videl fired up her browser and began to search for the name 'Son Gohan'. What she found surprised her. 'Son Gohan' was a name of a man, now deceased, who had been a martial artist. He had trained under one named Master Roshi. Not much else was known about him, but one document she found reported that the old man lived up in Mount Paozu.

Another document matched the name 'Son' with 'Goku'. He was the winner of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament – _no wonder his name was vaguely familiar! _Apparently, this man also trained with Master Roshi and lived up in the mountains. He was documented as a superb martial artist, with impressive reviews from the 21st and 22nd Martial Arts Tournament when he was still a very young boy. He had married the Ox King's daughter (the Ox King, being another one of Roshi's students). There were no recent news of him.

_Well if Goku and Chichi married eighteen years ago, that would make Gohan the right age to be their son,_ Videl thought. Not to mention that if Goku was somehow related to the senior Gohan, then it would explain why the name was the same.

She felt an uneasiness in her core. It might turn out that she made the wrong decision to befriend Gohan. He had martial arts in his blood. It would be so easy to slip up and make a mistake if he ever brought the topic up.

Videl sighed, then shut off her computer, and began writing down what she had on her hands. Perhaps things weren't related at all, but there was no harm in trying to see a much bigger picture.

Odd rumours. Hungry robber. A giant science fair. An attractive home-schooled boy from the mountains, who was simultaneously related to the richest woman in the world and the most powerful martial artists in history, coming down to the city to go to school for the first time.

This was one heck of a puzzle.

-o-

_Videl, Videl, Videl..._

_Videl Satan. Daughter of the Earth's Saviour, the World Champ, the Mighty Hero, Hercule Satan_. Gohan drummed his fingers on the top of his desk, as he scanned the rest of Dragopedia's article on the young crime-fighter. _Satan was the winner of the first junior division in the last World Martial Arts Tournament._ _She began lending her fighting skills to uphold justice on April 19, 770, during what became known as the Peanut Plaza Bullet Storm._

Most of the article highlighted achievements and popular events. There was actually very little about her personal life. She had a knack for evading paparazzis when she wasn't out fighting crimes. Gohan went back to the previous page, and went through several other sites listed on the results of his query. They all repeated pretty much the same thing. There was a small shrine from a dedicated fan that had collected images of her starting from when she was a young twelve year old competing in the tournament, but they didn't add any more information than what Dragopedia had documented.

The frustrated Gohan.

It wasn't like he was _obsessed_. People probably looked up other people on the Interweb all the time – otherwise, how did a site like Dragopedia become so popular? And he knew how rabid fans could get; he'd seen it happen with Yamucha, and even Bulma herself. He was definitely not like even the tamest of them.

Gohan was merely curious.

_Had it really been Videl that night_? Her chi was unmistakeable... but then again, he'd been thinking about her quite often lately. Could it had just been a trick of the mind? A wishful delusion because he wanted so much to meet her again?

But chis didn't work like that, did they? Gohan had over ten years of fighting experience now, and chi sensory had rarely failed or misled them.

So if indeed she had been there,_ what in the world was she doing?_

Gohan rubbed his eyes, and turned off this computer. Was it any business of his really where Videl Satan spent her time? He hardly knew her, and she didn't even know he existed, and the only time he'd actually spent in the same vicinity as her could be summed up in less than half an hour. He'd let it go for now. What was it to him?

In the meantime, he should probably head home.

He tucked in his chair, and snapped on the watch Bulma gave him earlier that week. He still hadn't had the opportunity to use it yet. But hopefully that would change soon. He grabbed his packed back, and shot out from his window to the dorm's rooftop with a speed he was sure would make him look nothing more than a speck of dust blown off in the wind. He pushed the red button, and within seconds he felt the outfit mold itself about his form. His vision darkened with the shaded visor, and his hands were wrapped in flexible gloves. He took off to the sky, passing by the school's tower.

His image was warped on the metal of the parabolic tower, the red and green and black morphing into a distorted image that resembled him only slightly. But Gohan didn't care. He knew he looked awesome.

Gohan had talked with his Mom, letting her know that he was going to come home for dinner. Their arrangement of having him home for the weekends was something he agreed to quite readily, because he didn't think he'd last that long without feeling bitterly homesick for his mother and his little brother.

Gohan marveled at the way the suit reacted to his high speed. Bulma was certainly indulgent when it came to him. It was almost as if she knew he'd resort to these kinds of extra-curricular activity. He wondered briefly what his mother would say about this whole fighting business. He knew she sent him here to secure his future as a competent and well-functioning member of society. Having an alter ego and beating people up wouldn't be her kind of proper preparation for that future. Still, there was a deeply ingrained feeling of justice in him, one that he felt was breached earlier this week by what he saw at the plaza.

The thing was, after all these years, the kind of monsters he and his friends had begun expecting to see were those who fell from the sky, threatening to blow the entire Earth away into the other world. But just because humans were less dangerous, it did not mean they were less culpable, did it? Gohan, out of all people, knew how powerful human emotions could be, and these people around him, all of them, had intentions and motivations. It would be arrogant to think that all of those aligned with his.

He shot off to the sky, knowing that it was difficult to catch even a fleeting glimpse of him that way. He roamed the city for a while, so that he could observe what was going on beneath him. Friday afternoons in the city was a buzz. He guessed that people were just excited to be free from obligations, and were out to have some fun. He himself felt a little too wound up from having been stuck in such an artificial environment for five days. There was a significant difference between studying at his comfortable desk at home and studying in a classroom with thirty other students.

At least he had Del to talk with. His mother would be pretty happy to know that he'd made friends so easily! He was quite surprised himself. Independence didn't really bother him too much, but it was easier to have someone to be with for the next several months.

Below him he noticed a bus winding between lanes on a highway, speeding as if there was a carnivorous dinosaur chasing after it. But there was nothing trailing it, save for the smoke its wheels and exhaust were producing. Even from up here, he could hear the panicked honking of the cars as they tried to avoid the rogue bus. From his vantage point, he could already see that there were crashed vehicles along the roads that it had passed, most likely caused by desperate attempts to avoid it. There didn't seem to be any sign that it would slow down.

_Probably carjackers._

Gohan sighed. Just when he was thinking about bad people, they showed up. He swooped down to land on the roof of the bus. He crouched over the front to look through the windshield. The driver gasped when he saw him.

"Hey punk!" he exclaimed, his voice carrying through the opened windows. "Get off the bus! Now! You'll get hurt!"

_Hurt?_ Gohan observed the driver. He was wearing the official uniforms all local transit drivers were required to wear. The wearied and panicked expression on his face told him that it was probably not his idea to drive this bus so recklessly. That would mean that he was being _forced_ to. Somehow.

Gohan swung around and entered the bus. He was welcomed with gasps and blank stares.

"Are you here to help us out?" a voice asked him, and he turned around to see a worried old woman clutching her purse.

"What's going on?" Gohan asked. The commuters were looking at him strangely.

"Just who are you?" the driver asked again. "This is no place for a punk in a Halloween costume. In case you didn't hear of it, there is a bomb attached to this vehicle that would detonate if we reduce the speed limit! This is the slowest I'm allowed to drive!"

Gohan was startled to hear that.

"Then quickly, we need to get the people off!" he said.

"And how exactly are we going to do that when this bus is going 180 km per hour?" The driver asked. "The police can barely catch up to us!"

Gohan looked out the window. They were on one of the many highway bridges across the city. The hover cars were lucky that they were able to float away from the lanes, but the terrestrial vehicles had no such options. The police cars were blocked.

"How much road do we have?" Gohan asked.

"Quite a bit but not for very long."

Alright. There were about fifteen or so passengers in the bus. He could carry perhaps four without harming anyone.

He took the old woman to his right and threw her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked.

"Trying to save you," Gohan explained as he grabbed a couple of more people, and flew out of the bus. The people in his arms and over his shoulder began screaming their heads off, trying to escape his grip.

"Wait, stop it you guys!" he said. "I'm going to put you down somewhere safe." He flew quickly over down to the ground below the highway bridge. The four people he managed to carry with him landed gently on the pavement, looking at him with bewildered expressions.

"Just who are you?" the old woman asked.

Gohan balked at that. He can't exactly just tell them his name, otherwise the whole point of this disguise would be moot! And silly him for not realizing sooner that he'd need a name for his alter-ego.

"Uh... right. That is a very good question. Let me get back to you." Leaving it at that, he flew back to the bus. When he was inside, he began throwing people onto his shoulders again, when the driver and the passengers near the front of the bus began yelling with horror.

Ahead the bridge was quickly coming to an end. Devoid of choices that didn't require slowing down for a turn, it appeared as if the driver had been forced to take the route of the unfinished bridge.

"What are we gonna do?"

"Jump off!" A panic-stricken man yelled, and he threw open the window closest to him. As he suggested, he leapt out of it, causing more panic to erupt from within the bus.

Gohan quickly shot out of the bus, flew down to the man who jumped out, and added him to the pile of bodies on his back. He slowed down as they reached the ground, where he deposited the shocked passengers. He wasted no time returning to the bus this time around.

However, when he got there, he noticed that there was a copter flying alongside it now. The copter was tilted at an angle, with a harness connecting one of its landing skids to a ridge on the top of the bus. Its door was wide open, and he could see people being helped into the copter by two cops and –

_Videl Satan!_

He flew straight to the bus door, startling all three of them. Videl quickly recovered from her surprise, but gave him a healthy doze of a curious glare, before pulling another passenger inside.

"Hurry up!" she yelled at one of the commuters, a man, who hesitated at the edge of the bus's doorway. Gohan grabbed the man's arm and flew him the rest of the way to Videl's copter. She looked at Gohan with wide eyes, but helped the passenger enter her copter anyway.

There were only a couple of passengers left now, include the driver. But they were also nearing the dead end.

"Come on! There's not much time!" Videl yelled, as one of the passengers began scaling the connector. From inside Gohan heard a desperate cry. He looked to his side and found that the road had come to an end. The bus tilted over, and caused the remaining passenger to fall down onto the dashboard at the front of the bus. For a moment it teetered there, still tied to the helicopter. The wheels were still turning due to inertia, but Gohan knew that eventually it would slow down and the bus would detonate. He grabbed a hold of one of the window frames to stop the bus from falling down to its demise and carrying the copter with it.

In a quick motion, he tilted the vehicle a little towards the helicopter, so that the man could roll out of it and onto the helping hands of the cops.

"Watch out!" Videl shouted, and she pointed to the wheels that were now starting to slow down.

Gohan waited only a split second to cut off the harness, before throwing the bus up into the sky, where it exploded a moment later.

The group watched the bright, orange flashes and dark fumes as broken pieces of metal rained down on the city below them. Gohan saw that the spot had been cleared by the police, so the falling debris didn't hurt anyone.

He followed the helicopter as it flew down to the ground. He didn't know whether it was okay to stick around, but it seemed a little rude if he just took off without even making sure that the people he had carried to safety were okay. But when he landed, he was told to stay put by the cops. A moment later, Videl stepped out of the copter, and walked towards him.

He thought he should be courteous so he gave her a wave. She ignored it.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

_Oh man, I really didn't think this through!_

Gohan looked around, trying to see if anything would inspire him to come up with a good name for himself. There was a fake palm tree planted on a pot near a swimsuit store. _The Extreeme Hero?_ Nah, nobody would get the pun unless he had them spell it out. By another corner of the street, a lonely tech shop huddled quietly between two large retail stores. _Lightning Voltz?_ That sounded –

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Videl exclaimed. She was about a foot in front of him now, staring at him with an intensity that might just crack the visor of his helmet.

"That's right!" Gohan said, grasping for whatever shreds of thought remained in his mind. "I'm uh... I'm the... I'm someone named... the Great Saiyaman!" Whoa, that floated out nicely from his mouth.

Videl squinted her eyes, opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

_Wow! Is she so impressed she's speechless_? Gohan thought.

"Do you think this is some kind of a joke?" she yelled, face both furious and incredulous at the same time.

"Wha – no, no! Definitely not. What makes you think I'm not taking this–"

"Why are you here?" she interrupted. "In this weird... attire? This is serious police work. People are getting hurt. They might get killed if we're not careful. There's no time for flash and pomp. And certainly no tricks!"

"Those weren't tricks!" Gohan protested. "You were there. You saw exactly what I did."

"I don't _know_ what you did," she crossed her arms. "So you'll have to explain yourself."

Gohan shifted uneasily. Behind Videl, he saw the paramedics taking care of the people who were in the bus. Some had serious injuries, but others were just told to sit and take a drink. Some of the cops were looking their way strangely.

"Why is this important now?" Gohan asked. "Isn't it more important to find out who installed that bomb on the bus and how to catch him?"

"He'd already been caught, don't you worry about that, _Saiyaman_," Gohan didn't miss the slight mockery in her voice, and was taken aback by her reaction. "He's a bitter, old employee of the transit company. Dismissed for what he felt were unreasonable terms, and he was out to get them back. I don't even know why I need to tell you this. You weren't even part of the rescue team. I realize that you helped save people's lives and deserve some kind of gratitude, but at the same time, you put us all in a great risk! Having unexpected intervention really threw us off back there."

Although her voice became less harsh by the end, she looked him over again, and her eyes narrowed once again. "Tell me, how are you able to float like you did?"

"Hey Videl!" one of the cops called. "We need you to make some statements for the report." She turned around to glance at the man, and Gohan took this opportunity to leave her interrogation. He shot up to the sky, and barely heard Videl's surprised cry of dismay.

When he was among the clouds, high enough that West City was only a dot below him, he switched off his Saiyaman suit, and rocketed through the sky to get back to his house.

Okay.

That definitely was _not_ the reaction he was hoping for. It was a bit underwhelming, if he had to admit so. Well, he certainly didn't daydream about hugs and kisses and fanatical faintings, but a little thank you would have been nice. (And perhaps a little admiration for this incredible costume.) He did, after all, help them out with their task.

Alright. Gohan admitted to himself that he was _quite_ disappointed. That was his very first encounter with Videl! And she wasn't even impressed by his totally fabulous gear! Bulma had probably worked hard on it, and besides, he was _certain_ it suited him well.

Gohan felt his face heat up. Sheesh. He'd known of Krillin's crush on Android 18, and he'd been on the receiving end of many of Yamucha's tales about the girls the former bandit had dated, but Gohan never knew quite for certain how it felt to be interested.

It felt slightly unhealthy, and that kind of worried him.

In any case, perhaps it would actually be better this way. If she was unimpressed, then she most likely wouldn't be interested in who he was. Even though he wanted to interact with her, he couldn't afford to let his identity slip out so easily. Otherwise, what was the point? Son Gohan himself would never be able to fight alongside a high-profile girl like Videl. But as Saiyaman... nobody knew who he was. Nobody would be able to stop him if he popped in to lend a helping hand once in a while.

And as one who always looked on the bright side, none of the people were gravely injured. None of them died, at least not any of the ones that were already there by the time he got to them. Either way, he got his mission accomplished. He kicked some major butts in his new suit! That was the most important part: try to keep the city as safe as possible.

Not Videl. Nope.

With that uplifting thought, Gohan headed home, eager to taste his mother's cooking once again.

-o-

Sharpner watched the commotion from his hovercar with an emotion that was sort of like a mix between amusement, indifference and irritation. The roads had been blocked, so there went his plans for a nice, pampered afternoon splurging on hair products.

What saved him from throwing a tantrum of course, was noticing a certain raven-haired girl appear on the news, which he had been watching on his car's holo-pod while he was stuck on the highway. A certain girl that he had been thinking about quite a bit these past few days, ever since he visited his father, and thrown out the profile for Ms. Little Politician.

A small part of him was in doubt; could he really trust his luck to bring him Videl Satan at the moment he needed it? It seemed a little... out of character for Life to bestow such an opportunity on Sharpner Pencil. It almost made him feel scared, as he rounded his car towards the nearest exit as soon as he could, and to find the intersection where policemen and paramedics stood crowding around the group of victims. He couldn't get in too close, because large orange pylons blocked off the way, so he parked behind an angry ambulance.

He spotted Videl near the edge of the crowd talking with Mr. Helmet-Dude-Needs-Fashion-Tip. Sharpner didn't know what the news was talking about – the guy possessed flying abilities and superhuman strength apparently. He basically had to scrape his jaw off the floor when the video showed footage caught on camera of this guy taking four people out of the speeding bus, and dropping them safely on the ground. It didn't even look like a fake stunt, but the flashy clothes sure made him question whether some F-TV crew would show up and tell them all they got punked.

Unsurprisingly, Videl seemed quite invested in grilling the dude. Sharpner felt an irritation spark inside him. He didn't know much about Videl. For a celebrity's daughter – and a bit of a celebrity herself – she was quite private, and there weren't much on the net he could find lending some light on the types of guys she liked. Papparazzis themselves find it a waste of time to trail her, because they lose more energy than the amount of money they would receive from having her picture taken (surprisingly). But of course, he shouldn't be surprised that a guy who showed as much skill as this man apparently should catch Videl's eye.

So that made things a little tough for him. Shouldn't be a big deal, should it? He's got his charms and good looks to rely on!

The guy flew away after a moment, and Sharpner squinted to look for any harnesses or steam-powered boots, but the guys was so fast, he didn't have the opportunity to do so. Curiosity tugged at him. His father would definitely make this a big deal once he caught wind of the news. His father always made everything a big deal.

Still, he shook himself. It had been a pretty weird day. Hopefully the weirdness would extend to some kind of luck with Videl.

He waited until the crowd had dispersed. Most of the cops had gone, all the passengers had been safely delivered to the hospital. He kept his eyes on Videl, trying to see where she would go. She walked off the scene in a calm manner, crossing the street and heading towards the shop centre. Sharpner made his move, and followed her. He tried to be discreet. He often made sure to look at the window shops to make himself look like he was an ordinary window shopper (but with money).

Videl, for all her casualness, was a brisk walker. She was looking from side to side, almost as if watching for someone. She looked back, almost directly at him, and Sharpner stopped in his tracks, whistling, acting as if something caught his attention. Unfortunately, the shop beside him was a lingerie store, and he blushed when an old woman caught him looking, and shook her head.

"It's for my girlfriend, you old prude!" he yelled after her.

When he looked back up at the street ahead, Videl was gone.

"Dammit!" he muttered, and he sped up. The street forked into three paths, two of them leading into more street shops, and the other one was the beginning of a rundown alleyway. He was sure Videl would never go into the alley, so he focused his search on the other two. Both were extremely crowded. It was Friday afternoon, and the whole city surely thought it was about time to make up for their drab attires from the previous four days. Bah! He hated shoppers. Always got in his way.

A weight pounced on him from the back, arms encircling his neck and dragging him backwards into the alley. Before he could even finish his fearful yelp, a hand smacked him straight across the face, the momentum carrying him to the ground, where he hit his head particularly hard on the stinky pavement.

"Uggh," he groaned.

"Who are you, and why are you following me?" a distinctly feminine voice asked him.

Sharpner was still crouched over, hand clutching his face where he had been hit. He tried to turn his head to get a look at his assailant, but a searing pain shot up his neck. All he could manage to do was roll over on his back, and squint up at the person.

At first he didn't recognize who she was, shadowed by the intense afternoon sun. And then his vision adjusted and he saw –

"Kami!" he exclaimed.

"What?" she said. "No, fortunately for you I'm not, otherwise I would have incinerated you on the spot."

"You're Videl!"

"Oh, so you know who I am?" she asked, before reaching down for his collar and pulling him up. The pain on his neck returned, and he groaned against her hold. She pushed him back against the brick wall. "Tell me, what's your business following me around?" she tightened her grip against his neck.

Spluttering before Videl Satan was not the highlight of his day. Nor his life. But the pain still throbbed through him, and he was way too overjoyed at being within ten inches of his target.

"I... I was just admiring!" he confessed. "It isn't everyday a guy meets his crush on the street?"

She made a face, then released him immediately.

"You think I'm falling for that?"

Sharpner coughed. The pain was fading a bit now, and he was able to comb his hand through his golden hair. "You tell me, baby. Are _you_ falling for me?"

She made the same face, and distanced herself a bit more.

_Okay Sharpner, you probably need to tone down the cool,_ Sharpner told himself. _Otherwise she'll just keep backing away._

"What do you want?" she snapped.

Sharpner made his eyes big and innocent; he even assumed the pose of someone who was mildly interested but determined. Well, at least he tried. He didn't know if that was possible. He was going with a new pick-up tactic here. Something extra special for an extra special project.

"Not much," he shrugged. "Only perhaps... a date?"

"A DATE?" Videl yelled, then slammed him back onto the wall. Gripping his collar, she whispered to him, seething, "Listen here you punk! The only date you're gonna get is the date I report you to the police. And that would be today, within the next few hours if you don't stop pestering me."

She released him harshly as she backed away from the alley. Then, before completely running away, she turned back and warned, "You'll be lucky if I report you to the police. Otherwise I'd be dealing with you myself!"

Then she was gone. She had blended among the crowds that Sharpner lost sight of her within seconds.

He smirked. That was a wonderful start. First meeting and he had already touched her! How amazing. And their interaction lasted exactly two minutes and thirty seven seconds. That was a lot more than the three seconds he was hoping for. Seems like life has been turning up for the first time since he could remember.

Sharpner wasn't dumb. At least not all the time. He knew that relying on the dragonballs to save him from this life would be a little cowardly. All that would prove was that he couldn't handle this life by himself, and that he needed some divine intervention to make things turn up for him. But courting Videl... that was all in his power. That was all in his skills. If he succeeded with this, it would prove a lot.

It didn't mean those genie balls were out of his plans. Nope... they'd just be plan B. Ha, and here his father thought Sharpner had never learned anything from their projects.

-o-

Videl exited the changing rooms of one of the cheaper dress stores. Their rented space consisted of only wooden walls, and unappealing metal racks of clothes. The changing room itself was only the corner of the room covered by a thick canvas. She liked this place: no cameras. There weren't a lot of people, but there were enough that nobody paid any attention when she entered the store as a girl, and left it as a boy.

Her altercation with the blond guy earlier unnerved her. Although he appeared quite helpless, it could just be some very good acting on the part of a professional spy. She wouldn't know. What if someone had discovered that she was investigating the WCA's financial loss? That could end her mission before it even really began.

Had she been too careless somehow? What had she done, and when, that could have alerted someone of her cover?

There was no helping it. She'd have to bring this up to Miso on their Sunday meeting.

Perhaps she should stop helping around the city. After all, Videl Satan was supposed to be at Satan City, doing her senior year at home with several private tutors. That had been her father's excuse to pull her out of Orange Star High. The records for these tutoring sessions would have to be fabricated, and her grades obtained through the city's standardized tests.

But this also meant that she couldn't be seen too often in West City. After all, it was several hours away from Satan City, and even if they argue that her tutors were lenient, it would soon look too suspicious.

_Damn!_ It wasn't like she could just let people be harmed!

Plus, how could she just disappear right when that _Saiyaman_ dude began floating around? She had never seen him anywhere, and by the looks on everyone's faces on site of the incident, nobody had ever heard of him before either.

And please, one would have to be an idiot not to see the red flags all over this guy's funky helmet. He obviously had super speed – nobody could get eight people off a speeding bus that fast, especially when the bridge was ten stories high. Obviously he also had the ability to float. Trying to think about that mind-boggling ability already made Videl's head hurt. And finally, he had super strength.

He definitely had something to do with those rumours. She was sure of it. There was a warm glow in the pit of her stomach. Finally, she's gotten a lead. What those supernatural beings had to do with the thief, she didn't know. Maybe nothing. Maybe she was just be grasping on straws here, but straws were better than nothing.

Videl had reached a part of the neighbourhood that was only several minutes away from West City Academy. It was a nice suburban area, full of trees planted at intervals beside the sidewalk. The houses, mostly bungalows, were a stark contrast from the high-rise condominium buildings surrounding the WCA campus.

Videl followed a short curb in the road, and found a large, fancy building. Unlike WCA, which borrowed architectural components from the old days, this building was as modern as Capsule Corps.' headquarters. There was a big, central dome, which other smaller domes surrounded in a floral pattern. The walls were painted slightly pink, with gold and silver trimmings for the frames. The low gate that bordered the block proudly displayed the name "Corn Street High".

Oh. She didn't know there was another high school nearby.

"Hi, can I help you?" a voice behind her asked.

Videl whipped back around, afraid that she was being stalked again.

But the person behind her was not someone she would ever expect to be dangerous; still, seeing her made her heart pound with surprise and apprehension.

"Erasa?" Videl whispered.

The blonde blinked hard. "Huh? Hey, how do you know my name?" Then she flashed an eager smile, and laughed. "I'm sorry. If we've met before, I don't remember you. Blame my bad memory for that!"

_Uh... darn. I have to be careful! This whole sneaking around business is way out of my comfort zone!_

"Nah, I mean... I just mean that you sorta look like someone whose name is Erasa..." Videl lamely explained.

The blonde cocked her head, brows raised high in question. Then she smiled again amiably. "I guess I do! Now, since we actually haven't met, would you mind sharing your name?"

"Del," Videl said automatically, before wondering if she had better kept it to herself. But there didn't seem to be a point in lying. If she were to stop going around the neighbourhood as Videl, then the only option she had was to call herself 'Del'; otherwise, she'd be keeping tabs on too many lies. She could barely keep up with one.

"Well, hello, Del!" Erasa shook her hand. "Are you new around?"

"I... uh, yeah!"

"Then welcome to West City!" she pointed to the building next to them. "I go here. It's an all-girls' school. Though if you're wondering if it's as good as WCA, let me be the first to dispel those rumours! All my classes are _so_ boring! All the teachers do is talk, talk, talk, and when they stop talking, they start giving out tests! That's _all_. Everyday. Sometimes I think I'm dying of boredom! Well, I bet if Corn Street High is as good as West City Academy, things would be more interesting! But nobody cares, because the _boys_ gotta have it good, you know? Oh!" she stopped, and blinked owlish eyes at Videl.

"Are you from WCA?" Erasa whispered.

Videl nodded.

"Oh no! I haven't offended you, have I? Don't tell me, you hate me now, right? Ugh, why can't I just keep my big mouth shut?"

"Hey, it's fine!" Videl said waving her hand to stop her former best-friend's self-reprimands. "Trust me, WCA is pretty much similar to how you describe your own school."

It was strange, seeing Erasa here like this after all these years. They used to be best friends, from kindergarten all the way to the start of junior high. But when Videl's father became a well-celebrated world celebrity, they moved from their hometown to Orange City – later renamed Satan City, after her father. She hadn't seen Erasa since. They tried to keep contact, but... well, it was difficult to prevent their friendship from going stale. She didn't even know that Erasa moved to West City to go to high school.

"Oh, does it?" Erasa asked. "Then I guess you guys also don't have fashion courses or merchandising or slam-bookkeeping?"

"Nope. Well, our marketing class in the business department is probably the closest match to all that, but WCA is oriented more towards the sciences."

Erasa opened her mouth to speak again, when all of a sudden, her eyes darted some place behind Videl, and she wrapped Videl up in a tight hug.

"Oh, you sweetie!" she exclaimed quite loudly.

"Wait, Erasa! What are you doing?"

"What's the meaning of this?"

Videl turned around sharply. Huh, no wonder the voice sounded familiar. It was that blond dude from half-an-hour ago!

"You again?" she exclaimed, punching him on the arm. "Why are you following me?"

"Ow!" he grabbed his arm, and sent a poisonous glare at Videl. "Who the _hell_ are you? I've never even seen you! What makes you think we've met, you crazy dumbass?"

_Oh crap. I did the thing again._

But to her surprise, Erasa came to the rescue. "Del here goes to West City Academy. Same as you, Sharpner! You've probably seen him around, and just forgot. I wouldn't be surprised. We all know here how terribly _forgetful_ you are. Oh, but you wouldn't remember _that_ now, would you? And by the looks of it, you've probably been harassing poor Del! Look how distressed he is right now."

"He better be distressed," Sharpner loomed over Videl, a good foot or so above her head. He used his height to his advantage, the way he sneered down at her.

Videl began to squirm within Erasa's hold. Man, this day was just getting weirder and weirder. West City was supposed to be the largest metropolitan in the world! How could she keep bumping into the same people again and again? She wiggled out of her Erasa's arms, and placed herself a good distance away from the two. They both began squabbling among themselves. Clearly they knew each other. What did Erasa call this boy? Sharpner?

"Hey, you leave her alone," Videl said, making her voice extra deep. She wondered how much she could get an official voice-changer for. She was sure she could pay it off... perhaps do a little more cleaning up in Satan City, or borrow money from her father temporarily. Or have Miso pay; this was all his idea after all.

"And who do you think you are?" Sharpner glared back. "You little shrimp. Don't you know who I am? Last name's Pencil. Do the math. How about you? Got anything to back you up?"

"Why, of course he does!" Erasa squeaked. "He's my boyfriend!"

"What?" Videl didn't know who said that louder: her or Sharpner.

"You heard me. Boyfriend. Now why don't you scoot. Run along to your pretty little girls and get some paparazzi mug shots. Because everyone knows that's about the only thing you're good for!"

Erasa grabbed Videl's hand, and locked their arms together, while they stared at the now jaw-slacked Sharpner. For a moment, genuine confusion and hurt flashed on his face, but then he just as quickly covered them up with smugness and indifference. Videl didn't miss a beat.

_Interesting._

"You'll regret this," he said, in a voice much lower and softer than he had been using.

"I already regret you, Sharpner. Now scoot!"

He left without saying another word.

When he was out of sight, Erasa rolled her eyes and sighed. "Sorry about getting you into that mess."

"That's okay," Videl untangled their arms, discomfort running down her spine. "You didn't really mean that thing... about me being your boyfriend, did you?"

Erasa's eyes widened, almost as if remembering something she had just forgotten. "Oh that! Well, it's up to you," she winked at Videl.

"Well... you're a nice girl and all, but uh... I'd rather not," Videl whispered, hoping that Erasa wouldn't be offended.

Erasa nodded enthusiastically. So much in fact that Videl had trouble believing that she meant it.

_Crap, what have I gotten myself into?_

* * *

AN: Okay, this chapter was SO much fun to write! I wrote it several months ago, and edited it a couple of weeks past. Still, I've been a little caught up in my Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction, so if you see any glaring mistakes, let me know right away! The good thing about writing chapters in advance is that I'm not pressured when it comes to updates, but it also means I forget how each chapter is connected.

_EDIT: Hey guys, just putting this out there for those of you who may also be curious about this. Guest left a review for this chapter pointing out Gohan's failure to recognize Del's chi as Videl's.  
_

_I guess the answer to this would highly depend on the mechanics of chi in the Dragonball Z world. As far as I know (and I haven't watched DBZ in a while, so forgive me for my knowledge gaps), our heroes can detect a person's chi only when said person is involved in some kind of strenuous activity, which is why they tend to stop flying when they want to mask their chi. What I don't know is to what extent these exertions can go before someone can sense a chi; does merely walking trigger it? Carrying books? If so, then my workaround of having Del not participate in any physical activity would not work, and I have a pretty obvious plot hole in my story once again (it was also in the previous version, and I really wanted to rectify it... hehe). _

_However, if it is not the case, the reason Gohan was able to sense Videl's chi in the kitchen in Chapter 2, even though he didn't see her, was because she exerted herself in her jump between the tables, and I was hoping that the energy required for both the stealth and the power to jump in a restricted fashion would cross the barrier between the "unsensable" chi and the "sensable" (and yes, I made those words up)._

_As to the second part of the question, I actually looked up how a car can detect its speed, and it usually does through the number of rotations the wheels make (which is why sometimes speedometers would incorrectly tell you your speed if your wheels don't have optimal radius). The reason Gohan couldn't have just lifted the bus was because eventually the wheels would slow, and trigger the bomb. But yes, I guess Gohan *could* have kept the wheels spinning manually by rolling it with his hand... though they didn't really have time to figure out where the bomb was... I mean, it would definitely have to be connected to the breaking mechanism, but given the technology in the DBZ world, it really could have been anywhere and *still* have access it. Hmm..._


End file.
